The Early Period was characterized by orally communicated legends, fairy tales and verses of unknown authors.
The Early Feudal Period of Georgia between the 5. and 10. century was characterized predominantly by christian patristic works, mostly descriptions of the lives of saints (hagiographies), e.g. depicting religiously motivated fights and fights for the freedom and independence of Georgia.
Starting in the 10th century, the High Feudal Period was characterized by a thriving economy and culture under strong rulers. Secular topics became more dominant, e.g. in epics.
With the mongol invasions and the following deterioration of the state and life overall under changing rulers between the 13th and the 16th century, the Late Feudal Period experienced a slow comeback of genuine Georgian literature. Literary topics were imported from oriental literature, later elements of indigenous literature were rediscovered, as well as Russian and European literatures. Towards the end there was a an intense romantic phase in the Georgian literature.
During the Modern Period the Georgian literature developed from the romanticism towards realism, often contrasted by a weakening feudalism, the advent of capitalism and national freedom movements. Other lyrical traditions in this period developed around Symbolism and Folk Verse.
Starting with topics of the communist revolution and its effects in Georgia, a Soviet Period of Georgian literature came about after 1921. It was characterized by socialistic realism.
The post-Soviet Contemporary Period of the Georgian literature was affected by the many societal and political developments as well as the armed conflicts in and around Georgia after 1990.
This short sketch was compiled base on information in Fähnrich (1981) and Rayfield (2013).