Chonkadze, Daniel

Chonkadze, Daniel Georgievich

 

Born Mar. 18, 1830, in Kvavili; died June 17 (29), 1860, in Tiflis. Georgian writer. Son of a village priest of peasant origin.

Chonkadze graduated from the Tiflis Theological Seminary in 1851. He is highly esteemed in the history of Georgian literature as the author of the realistic novella The Surami Fortress (1859). The work, which deals with a peasant and his struggle against serfdom, influenced the social consciousness of Georgia on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. It played an important role in popularizing the Georgian literary language. Chonkadze also collected Ossetian proverbs.

WORKS

Chonk’aze, D. Suramis c’ixe. Tbilisi, 1974.

REFERENCES

Khakhanov, A. S. Ocherki po istorii gruz. slovesnosti, fasc. 4. Moscow, 1906.
Baramidze, A., Sh. Radiani, and B. Zhgenti. Istoriia gruzinskoi literatury. Moscow, 1958.
Xundaze, A. Daniel Chonk’aze. Tbilisi, 1966.