Semantic Function of Spatial Experiences and Memories in The Southern Elephant by Archil Kikodze and Zinka Adamiani by Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili

Abstract

Urban space is a specific public space that society creates and lives in. Mental states and material conditions are spatially regrouped in different historical phases and rewritten each time. The topic of this research is to determine the semantic influence of spatial experiences and memories on the construction of narrative identity. Urban novels by two Georgian authors – The Southern Elephant by Archil Kikodze and Zinka Adamiani by Ana Samadashvili-Kordzaia – were selected as research objects. These primary sources were analysed within the following methodological framework: 1. the space semantics of Juri Lotman, 2. Pierre Nora’s sites of memory, and 3. Aleida Assmann’s forms of forgetting. Using these theoretical approaches, it was possible to determine the role of spatial concepts in the construction of narrative identity, and the impact of changes in historical, social, economic, cultural, and worldview conditions on narrative identities constructed in the text.