Summary
Seyran Z. Grigoryan
PhD in Philological Sciences
The article examines the character of Charlotte Schulz in the “Dorpatian Diaries” by Khachatur Abovyan and in the poem “Towards Mount Masis” by Yeghishe Charents. Yeghishe Charents is the founder of the modern Armenian literature, and in his works, the literary heritage of Khachatur Abovyan, the founder of new Armenian literature, has played a special role.
On February 20, 1933, Yeghishe Charents wrote the poem “ Towards Mount Masis ”, which soon found a place in the “At the Crossroads of History” section of the “Book of the Way” collection. The poem is dedicated to the life and work of Khachatur Abovyan. The main focus is on the problem of Abovyan’s disappearance, but through the depiction of the last sleepless night and the dramatic thoughts of the hero, some important questions are raised. They include psychological issues in addition to political and intellectual ones. In the poem, Charents creates vivid images of Dorpat University professor Friedrich Parrott and the beloved girl of young student Khachatur Abovyan – Charlotte Schulz.
The source of the image of Charlotte Schulz was a memoir called “Dorpatian Diaries”, written by Khachatur Abovyan in simple grabar from 1830 to 1835. As a work of memoir literature, the diary depicts the acquaintance and love of the characters in the Baltic village of Ponimon (Panemune), the meetings, relationships, and feelings of an Armenian student and a young beautiful German woman. Charlotte Schulz is the adoptive sister of Khachatur Abovyan’s closest friend, Theodor Grass. Khachatur Abovyan writes the name of the heroine in the forms Lotte or young lady Schulz. Real facts and images of documentary prose in the poem “Towards Mount Masis” are used by the principle of poetic generalizations. Charents does not recreate the details of a love story, not details and circumstances, but the essence of the characters and their feelings.
At the time of writing the poem, Khachatur Abovyan’s “Dorpatian Diaries” was not published yet. It was first published in 1955 as a separate book and in the 6th volume of the complete works of Khachatur Abovyan. In this article we assume that as a source for creating the character of Charlotte Schulz, Yeghishe Charents could have used Nerses Ter-Karapetyan’s study “Khachatur Abovyan”, where there are many quotes and retellings of diaries based on the manuscript of this work. Another version is that Yeghishe Charents, like Nerses Ter-Karapetyan, was familiar with the manuscripts, which were then still kept by the writer’s descendants.
An important role in the poem is played by one reliable artifact preserved in the archive of Khachatur Abovyan. That is Charlotte Schulz’s souvenir. Its source is also the writer’s diaries, but in the poem, it has a special artistic meaning. Through it, the main poetic principle of the poem operates – the synthesis of the real and the artistic. The poem focuses on the dramatic separation of lovers. The article makes an attempt to clarify this ending with the help of real biographical facts of Khachatur Abovyan and Charlotte Schulz.
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