Curse in the Stories of Egnate Ninoshvili

Abstract

The paper examines examples of curses extracted from the short stories of Egnate Ninoshvili (1859–1894), analyzing the motives underlying their utterance and the character types constructed around these motives. The author presents a wide range of curse expressions, which he skillfully employs to characterize both his protagonists and the society they inhabit. Consequently, the language of cursing occupies a significant place in the everyday lives of Ninoshvili’s characters. The aim of the study is to determine the semantic significance of curses, to examine their impact on the characters, and—based on the analysis of subtexts—to reveal the psychological portraits of those who utter them. The research also seeks to elucidate the function of such beliefs in the realization of the thematic and ideological framework of the stories.