Suicide – Protest or Escape from Reality

(Leo Kiacheli’s Princess Maya)

Abstract

The paradoxical nature of the social effect of suicide has been noted many times not only in scholarly works but also in literary texts. Common sense considers suicide to be a completely meaningless act; however, it may be caused by many different factors, and it is impossible to unite this diversity under a single phenomenon

In a literary text, suicide as an act can be seen either as a form of protest — resulting from the incompatibility of the individual with the surrounding world — or as a fact, a reaction to a particular (sometimes personal) life reality, though it is also, to some extent, intensified or conditioned by more general circumstances. Thus, there is no fixed narrative definition of suicide, since it is multi-causal in nature.

Nevertheless, every act of self-destruction, despite its individual (sometimes egoistic) character, is grounded in one cognitive foundation: hopelessness. At the same time, it is predominantly linked to religion and patriotism and is generally regarded as an anti-religious and antisocial phenomenon. It is accompanied by the suffering of the actor/suicide and by his or her paradoxical perception of time.

Throughout world literary history, accounts of suicide have accompanied narratives from the beginning to the end. However, it is also recognized that since the last century - under the influence of the technocratic and modernist era, within the framework of wars, the collapse and reinterpretation of values, together with personal alienation - the human desire to voluntarily withdraw from the world has increased and, accordingly, has been reflected in literature as well.

This tendency has become equally evident in Georgian literature, appearing in the works of Egnate Ninoshvili, Shio Aragvispireli, Chola Lomtatidze, Grigol Robakidze, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Niko Lortkipanidze, Leo Kiacheli, and other writers.

In this paper, the phenomenon is examined through Leo Kiacheli’s short story Princess Maya , with particular attention to how the protagonist’s life, inner world, and psychological portrait are interpreted in the context of her self-inflicted suicide.