Tamar Pataridze

Funded by the ‘Southern Caucasus and its Neighbours’ project, Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, CEU.

The postdoctoral project should lead to a publication with an overview of the complex phenomenon of cultural exchanges between the two major « Eastern » areas, namely the Near East (or Middle East: Egypt, Palestine, Syria) and the different areas of the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia). Focusing on exchanges and influences in literature, the research will focus on a study of the reception and assimilation way of cultural elements by the Christians from the Semitic world in the Caucasian world.The study will concern the literary, socio-cultural and philological framework of these exchanges. This interaction will be analyzed against the background of the emphasis on the role of the Georgian world as intersection and connection link between the Christian Middle East and Byzantium.