For the Issue of Humorous Oratorical Samples in Georgian Rhetoric

Abstract

The present study deals with the issue of humorous oratorical samples in Georgian rhetoric. The mentioned topic has never been the subject of a special study until now, which determines its relevance and novelty. This type of oratorical samples can be found in small numbers and are confirmed in such humorous periodicals as the newspaper “Intermediary” and the magazines “The Whip and fife”, “The Devil's Whip“ and “The New Whip”. “Devil’s Whip” was the name of a Georgian-language weekly humorous magazine that was published in Tbilisi in 1907-1908, and later, after a certain interval – in 1915-1917, 1919-1921. “Devil's Whip” was issued under different names: “Whip”, “New Whip", “Whip and fife”, “The fife”, “Our fife", etc. It should be noted that the editors of the magazine at different times were T. Bolkvadze and N. Kalandadze, and the publishers – T. Bolkvadze, A. Bukia, E. Lomtatidze and S. Tavartkiladze. Publications in the journal were published under pseudonyms, for example, the pseudonym of the editor and publisher of the journal, Teofile Bolkvadze, was “Devil’s Foot” (Grishashvili, 1987: 30), and Nestor Kalandadze – “Devil” (Grishashvili, 1987: 30), etc. “Devil’s Whip” artwork, caricatures and drawings belong to Oskar Schmerling and Shalva Kikodze. Along with the original works, translations were printed in the magazine, as well as both prose texts and poems. For us, the mentioned periodicals are noteworthy to the extent that, along with humorous oratorical samples, caricatures related to rhetoric and orators were also published in it. For the history of Georgian rhetoric, it is noteworthy not only to reveal such samples, but also to investigate a number of issues, including the issue of their authors, subject matter, field and genre attribution, etc. As a rule, these samples were printed under pseudonyms, for example, “Speech, spoken on December 6 by a fat orator at a meeting of petty merchants in Tbilisi” belongs to someone “Binoculars”, “A speech delivered by Ilia Chavchavadze at the time of the execution in village Guramiantkar” – to someone “the devil”, “The word: said by the Leverkelian missionary Melkhisadec Atonel on Agap in Ozurgeti” – by someone “Papaskua”, “A popular lecture, read by the author on the literary morning oo May 3” the author has published under the pseudonym “Mouse”, “A speech delivered by X at the meeting of women devoted to the motherland. [Poem]” – under the pseudonym of “Satan”; There is another humorous oratorical sample belonging to Akaki Tsereteli: “Praise to the editor: Here's what a proofreading error means”, which, unlike the previous samples, was printed in a non-humorous periodical edition. The mentioned samples are interesting to the extent that Georgian eloquence confirms similar oratorical samples of a humorous nature, which is rare, in general, in the history of rhetoric. The mentioned samples were printed in the above-mentioned periodicals of the 10-20s of the 20th century.