At the Intersection of Tale, Myth, and Modernism: The Moral Allegory of The First Garment

Abstract

Guram Dochanashvili’s The First Garment presents a distinctive narrative structure in which folktale aesthetics intersect with moder­nist literary techniques. The novel’s allegorical design departs from the traditional fable’s didactic clarity and instead constructs an open-ended ethical space shaped by the protagonist’s inner conflicts. The motif of the “first garment” exemplifies how a symbolic element inh­er­­­i­ted from myth and folktale acquires new significance within a mo­d­ernist framework, revealing the fragility, ambiguity, and moral unc­ertainty of human nature. The rhythmic simplicity of myth and tale co­exists with modernist disorientation, epistemological instability, and psychological fragmentation, producing a hybrid narrative form that both engages Georgian literary tradition and reinterprets it thro­ugh a contemporary lens. Rather than offering fixed moral conclu­sio­ns, the novel foregrounds interpretive multiplicity and reflective ope­nness, contributing a nuanced perspective to discussions on mod­ern fable and moral allegory. There is a lack of a comprehensive anal­ysis of Dochanashvili's allegorical structure in modern fable studies. This article fills this gap and repositions the text within the context of both mythopoetic and ethical modernism. This study aims to fill the theoretical gap in modern fable studies by repositioning the novel on the axis of tale-myth-modernist ethics.