Vol. 1 No. 2: June 2022 CJMS
Spring has arrived in the beautiful South Caucasus, and along with the flowers have come some new writing for this second issue of the Caucasus Journal of Milton Studies. The Journal aims to encourage writers at all levels to share their work in a free and open medium. Authors do not pay to have their work published, and readers do not pay to read it.
Three academic articles are included in this issue. Edward Raupp shows the connection of John Milton, writing in the 17th century, to the poets of the 18th century Romantic Movement. Master’s Degree student Tinatin Shengelia offers a glimpse into the dynamics of literary learning in an innovative research project involving the exposure of young people in a small Georgian village to Boccaccio’s Decameron. Tinatin Sikharulidze, a Ph.D. candidate, presents a commentary on collection of Byronic poems translated by Innes Merabishvili and others.
Eter Churadze continues her campaign to bring together the poetry of two languages to demonstrate the beauty of each to the wider world. Nino Kvitsinadze brings us a powerful poem of love and longing from contemporary Georgian writer Davit Darbaidze.
Salome and Mariam Bekauri paint vividly three scenes based on Milton’s Samson Agonistes, considered by some to be the greatest English drama based on the Greek model and known as a closet tragedy, one more suited for reading than performance.
Young teenager Ana Manvelishvili turns Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet from tragedy to comedy with a twist of the ending in her very short story. What a joy to see the creative work of our youth, and what a privilege it is to share their work in the Journal.
In a stunning piece of modern prose poetry, Nino Pepanashvili gives us “A Satellite.” If modern poetry suffers from a lack of distinction, we have here an antidote. This poem is honest to its core. The language is striking. And the story is gripping. We are so pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this poem to a world in such need of beauty and integrity.
As a service to our readers, we offer a list of online accessible websites for poetry and for research purposes in the hope that these resources may prove helpful.
Finally, we’re pleased to announce that Caucasus Journal of Milton Studies has been admitted to membership in the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). Also, in line with professional standards, we have adopted an Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement, which can be found at https://cjojms.com/index.php/research/ethics-malpractice-statement.
Best wishes to all our contributors and readers,
Danna Raupp
Editor in Chief
June 2022
