THE RHETORIC OF PRE AND POST- FUNERAL ORATORY (ON THE BASIS OF IRISH PRE - FUNERAL AND GEORGIAN POST-FUNEARAL RECEPTION TOASTS)

Thea Shavladze
Assoc. Prof., Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Georgia, t.shavladze@gmail.com

Abstract
The funeral or memorial speech is an integral part of most funeral and memorial services.  Funeral speeches include formal eulogies or tributes as well as informal reflections, remembrances and comments. Funeral rituals and funeral oratory are the topics that have received considerable attention by scholars (cultural historians, anthropologists, linguists, philologists), but the rhetoric of pre and post – funeral reception toasts are not investigated at all.

The aim of the author is to compare old Irish and Georgian funeral traditions still preserved in these cultures, examine a number of contemporary Irish wakes and Georgian Kelekhi linguistically, identify rhetorical and lingua - stylistic peculiarities of pre and post-funeral toasts and find similarities and differences between traditions of two different cultures.

Keywords: funeral speech, tradition, toast, pre and post-funeral reception, oratory style.