Article

Name: Sergey Parajanov and Tiflis: “Guide” of Cultural Memory, Urban Space and Its Transformation

Authors: Tigran S. Simyan

Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia

Abstract:

This paper considers the great director Sergei Parajanov (1924–1990) as a “guide” and a connoisseur of his hometown of Tiflis, and an interpreter of urban space. Specifically, it focuses on the analysis of the screenplay “Confession” that describes the transformation of the urban landscape. The cemeteries of the Old Tiflis era (the Old-Veria and Khojivan cemeteries) were being destroyed and turned into cultural parks. Such transformations became a tragedy for many families. The destruction of cemeteries wasn’t merely an individual or generational tragedy, but also had a political component. The analysis showed that in Georgia, during the Soviet era, a nationalist, chauvinistic cultural, commemorative policy of oblivion was carried out, which continued during the reign of Mikhail Saakashvili (2008–2013). The article substantiates the following thesis: Tiflis has become an object for reflection of the great director, creative and commemorative material. The article is divided into two parts. In the first part (Tiflis as a microhistorical space), Sergey Parajanov is presented as an expert, “guide” of his city, who reveals various transformations in the urban space, such as, for example, “the funeral of cobblestones”. Parajanov shows the great screenwriter Tonino Guerra how the cobblestone is being replaced by asphalt or how in the ateliers of old Tiflis sewed “aerodrome”-caps on blanks, the prototype of which was the Sicilian Coppola. The second part of the article (The City as Imaginary and Signified) analyzes the film script “Confession” from the point of view of the urban landscape, as well as an object of individual, cultural and historical memory.

Keywords: Old Tiflis, Tbilisi, urban space, transformation of urban space, microhistory of Tbilisi, Sergey Parajanov, Tonino Guerra, superstition of Tiflis

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