Structural Dynamics of Ethnopolitical I-Positioning in Soviet and Post-Soviet Georgia – Through Lenses of Nino Kharatishvili’s “Brilka-Eighth life”

This manuscript examines the theoretical subtleties of ethnocultural positioning and its relation to the dialogical and structural dynamics of self-construction through dramatic historical transformations. It is based on a phenomenon-centred methodological approach to cultural psychological research which involves fictional text`s qualitative content analysis. I consider Nino Kharatishvili`s monumental historical novel “Brilka-eighth Life” as a sociocultural artefact which informs us about the history of self-construction of several generations of various families throughout the twentieth century. Different cultural-historical contexts lead to the formation of binary oppositional forms of ethnocultural positioning inside the same societal group. It has been shown that I-positioning is always relational, which takes forms of dialogical or monological conversation. Transformative structural dynamics create the basis for the self and sociocultural transformations and intra-individual and inter-individual variety.