Ekaterine Gabashvili ( ka, ეკატერინე გაბაშვილი) née Tarkhnishvili (თარხნიშვილი) (16 June 1851 – 7 August 1938) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

writer, feminist and public figure who called for social reform in favour of women's emancipation.

Biography

Born on 16 June 1851, Ekaterine Tarkhnishvili was born into an aristocratic family in Gori, then part of

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

. She was the daughter of Revaz Tarkhnishvili and Sopio Bagraton-Davitashvili. After completing her primary education, she attended the city's best school, a private boarding school run by Madam Favre. At 17, she opened a private school devoted to the education of peasant children, concerned as she was by the conditions of the peasantry. She married Aleksandre Gabashvili when she was 19, eventually raising 11 children. Her writing was influenced by two works on the emancipation of women which had been published in Georgian: Harriet Taylor Mill's ''The Enfranchisement of Women'' and

Fanny Lewald Fanny Lewald (21 March 1811 – 5 August 1889) was a German novelist and essayist and a women's rights activist. Life and career Fanny Lewald was born at Königsberg in East Prussia in 1811 to a bourgeois, Jewish family. She was taken out of sch ...

's ''Für und wider die Frauen''. As a result, from 1872 she set about mobilizing Georgian women by establishing women's circles in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

Kutaisi Kutaisi (, ka, ქუთაისი ) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the third-most populous city in Georgia, traditionally, second in importance, after the capital city of Tbilisi. Situated west of Tbilis ...

, Gori and Khoni, focused on the publication and translation of relevant women's literature. In 1897, she established a women's professional school which led to girls schools around the country. Gabashvili was an active member of the Society for the Advancement of Learning Among Georgians. In 1890, together with

Anastasia Tumanishvili-Tsereteli Anastasia Tumanishvili-Tsereteli (1849–1932) was a Georgians, Georgian writer and educator who made important contributions to cultural developments in her country, particularly those of women. She first founded the Women’s Circle, Georgia ...

, co-founded ''Jejili'', a journal which published children's literature, encouraging interest in the genre in Georgia.

Publications

She authored several sentimental novels and stories about the sorrows of village schoolteachers and peasant life. Her novels ''Love Affair in Big Kheva'' and ''While Sorting Maize'' upset the social norms of the day, calling for personal freedom and romantic love. In the 1900s, she abandoned fiction for autobiography.

Rayfield, Donald Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Josep ...

(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'': 2nd edition, p. 217. Routledge, Gabashvili is also known as one of the first Georgian

feminists Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...

and

women’s rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

activists. In 1958, a movie ''Magdanas lurja'' ('' Magdana's Donkey''), based on one of Gabashvili’s novels and directed by

Tengiz Abuladze Tengiz Abuladze ( ka, თენგიზ აბულაძე; 31 January 1924 – 6 March 1994) was a Georgian film director, screenwriter, theatre teacher and People's Artist of the USSR. He is regarded as one of the best Soviet directors. ...

and

Revaz Chkheidze Revaz "Rezo" Chkheidze ( ka, რევაზ "რეზო" ჩხეიძე; 8 December 1926 – 3 May 2015) was a Georgian film director, People's Artist of the USSR, best known for his Soviet-era drama films, including his 1964 World Wa ...

, won prizes at the international film festivals at

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabashvili, Ekaterine 1851 births 1938 deaths Burials at Didube Pantheon Nobility of Georgia (country) People from Gori, Georgia 19th-century writers from Georgia (country) 20th-century writers from Georgia (country) 20th-century women writers from Georgia (country) 19th-century women writers from Georgia (country) Feminists from Georgia (country) Suffragists from Georgia (country) Women's rights activists from Georgia (country) Suffragists from the Russian Empire Writers from the Russian Empire

Biography

Publications

See also

References