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ARTISTIC METHOD OF SIRARPIЕ DER-NERSESYAN – 2017-1

Summary

Siranush A. Beglaryan

Key words – Sirarpie Der-Nersesyan, Erwin Panofsky, Myrtilla Avery, André Grabar, Wellesley College, method, connoisseur, approach, medievalist, art historian.

This article is the addendum to our translation of the curriculum named “The Direct Approach in The Study of Art History”, which Sirarpie Der-Nersesyan proposed in the US. By referring to the author’s text, we attached great importance not that much to the curriculum but to the issues of art history and art study raised by the scientist who proposed a method.

In the beginning, we gave a brief summary of the method content, then sum it up by introducing the origin of the method.

We touched upon the issue of interpretation in the method and within this issue we represented the connection between the method she proposed and her studies by using one of her monographs.

We dwelt on the practice of description in the study of art by stressing its significance and the exact purpose factor both in the method of studying art proposed by Sirarpie Der-Nersesyan and directly in her studies.

The translated material is unique in its nature. Left out of the biography texts, it was overlooked, whereas the existence of the text reveals both Sirarpie Der-Nersesyan’s activities in the US as a scientist and art historian and in some way her contribution in strengthening a newly formed discipline. In this article, we tried to show Sirarpie Der-Nersesyan’s views on art study and on the issues of representing it, and also indicate the relation of Armenian medieval art historians to this method of study, which has become common to them.

THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF HOVHANNES KAJAZNUNI – 2017-1

Part two. From Stalin’s repressions until exculpation (documents)

Summary   

Ararat M. Hakobyan

Key words – H. Kajaznuni, Kh. Mughdusi, criminal case, arrest, execution, Troika, prison, NKVD, KGB, investigation, indictment, verdict, certificate, prosecutor, officer of the criminal investigation department, 1937, decision, exculpation.

As a continuation of the article devoted to O. Kajaznuni’s life and work in the 1920s, we present to the attention of the reader some archival documents relating to the last years of his life – arrest, heavy emotional distress, initiation of a criminal case, decision to execute and after his tragic death, the review of his case and exculpation.

In November, 1937 (the date is not visible) the criminal case of O. Kajaznuni with the indictment and with the approval of Kondakov was sent to the review of the Troika of the NKVD of the USSR. On December 5, 1937, the Troika pronounced a verdict on the execution of the defendant with the confiscation of personal property. However, due to health problems, Kajaznuni was in the prison hospital in Yerevan. According to the order, the death penalty could be carried out only upon the permission of the prison (judicial) doctor. However, O. Kajaznuni’s physical health was in such a critical condition that the prison doctor did not give permission for execution, or at least postponed the implementation of this act until the prisoner could stand up on his own. But due to further deterioration of health (senile weakness, tuberculosis and influenza), the former prime minister died in the prison hospital a few days later, on January 15, 1938, at the age of 70.

The publication of the documents regarding the unjustified and false criminal case of O. Kajaznuni is symbolic in that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the Stalinist repressions of «1937».

ON THE POEM OF AV. ISAHAKYAN ENTITLED “ON THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DASHNAKCUTYUN” – 2017-1

Summary 

Ervand G. Pambukian

Key words – Av. Isahakyan, Ch. Mikaelian, Geneva, poem, Hay-Gusan, “Droshak”, Venice, decade, epic.

In the exceptionally rich archive of Simon Vratsyan, among other things, Avetik Isahakian’s handwritten texts have also been preserved. The text below (folder 150 / 12-15) is probably taken from the folder of the official newspaper of ARF Dashnaktsutyun – “Droshak” of those days when Vratsyan was the editor of the newspaper (1925-1933).

THE EARLY DEMONSTRATIONS OF ETHNIC CONSCIOUSNESS OF TURKIC SPEAKING PEOPLE – 2017-1

In Turkic and Russian press of the Eastern Transcaucasia at the end of the 19th century

Summary

Vardan A. Galstyan

Key words – Eastern Transcaucasia, Azerbaijan, Turkish-speaking people, Muslims, ethnic self-consciousness, “Ekindzhi”, “Keshkul”, “Terjuman” “Kaspiy”, Unsizade, Gasprinskiy, Shahtakhtinski.

In the end of the 19th century important changes took place in the life of Turkic speaking ethnic population of Eastern Transcaucasia. Due to literal activity of Mirza Fathali Akhundov and his followers, Turkic literary language and literature were formed. Under the influence of Turkic literature and western education a totally new class of intellectuals emerged. They studied in Russian, some of them in European educational centres, learned western languages and science. The next step of changes was the formation of Turkic press which eventually became the scene where new intellectuals shared their thoughts about ethnic consciousness of Turkic ethnos.

In this article are represented examples from Turkic and Russian press of the past quarter of the 19th century where Turkic speaking authors appeal to their ethnos. They called to refuse dominating religious self-identification of “muslims” and found the term “tatar” inaccurate as a name of Turkic ethnos of Transcaucasia. Under the influence of rising Panturkism in Russian empire they began to promote as ethnonym the artificial term “Azerbaijani” which was traditionally used for the region and people in the north of Iran.

“THE PIRMALAK CASE” (1941-1942) – 2017-1

One fragment of Stalinist repressions

Summary

Artavazd G. Darbinyan

Key words – “The case of Pirmalak”, 1937, Stalin’s repressions, arrest, fear, threat, execution, exile, exculpation.

In Soviet historiography, the dominant opinion is that, after the Nazi Germany attack, political violence in the Soviet Union practically ceased, but it is not true. After the attack, the trains continued to deliver tens of thousands of victims of political repressions to labor camps. At the first stage of the war, in 1941, a concrete example of political violence in Armenia was the arrest and exile of 15 people (mostly youth) of the Talin region and the village Pirmalak of the same region. The case was based on the indictment numbered “investigation file 9265”, which we will conditionally call the “Pirmalak Case”. According to the decision taken by the special committee by NKVD on December 23, 1942 (of course, the trial was not conducted), one of the members of the group – Gevorg Mirakyan (according to the indictment, he was the leader of the anti-revolutionary Dashnak organization) was sentenced to maximum punishment – еxecution by firing squad with the confiscation of personal property, and the other members of the group were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

GENRE – 2017-1

Variant reading and complexity of the definition

Summary

Slavi-Avik M. Harutyunyan

Key words – “the philosophical theory of the value”, the genre, the determination, the term, the Socratic method, the sex, the aspect, the value, the content, the logical schemas of T. Monroe, the extensional approach, the intentional approach, the aesthetic valuations, “the utilitarian” art.

In the given article the problems of the conception and the determination of the genre are examined in philosophy, in the sciences of art, culture, and literature. There are two main approaches of the genre determination which are considered: extensional and intentional.

From one hand, it’s an empiric and inductive approach where the author is relying on already existing multiple types of art and he is looking for signs corresponding to those types. On another hand, it’s a theoretical, deductive and an individualizing method thanks to which certain functions of the genre are regarded as a whole unit. Depending on these approaches, which are intertwined in a certain way, the term of genre is characterized by consistency and content which refer to the unified set of significant signs based on which the group of objects stand out, i.e. the volume.

The classification and the division imply the sequential division of some original notion into its kinds, and the kinds are, in their turn, divided into sub-kinds.

Therefore, the classification begins from the analysis of the logical operation of the division by splitting the volume of the generic notion into the unending volumes of the notions of the kinds. However, the operation is done in a way that, the notions of the kinds end up depleting the entire volume of the generic notion.

While performing such an analysis in a generic aspect on a specific historic and cultural material, it becomes clear that the level of the relative “independence” of the art is different depending on the era and, moreover, that “independence” tends to increase. That process of the increasing “independence” starts from boundary diffuseness in the framework of the syncretic primitive culture, it acquires a certain “independence” in the Ancient world and Middle ages up to the significant independence and recognition of its self-value in the era of Renaissance and Illumination, and finally, it reaches the point of “the art for the art”. Thus, the demand of the splitting the notions in a way other than “classical and generic” is rather related to the science development, it is also caused when a specific type of art, aesthetic and culture sciences push their own boundaries. In a chain of four classification problems, the lowest point, according to the author, is the problem of the genres, and the highest point is the differentiation of the arts and “no arts” (that being said, the forms and the products of the human activity related to the arts). All those problems can be considered productive only in the case of consistent and complex analysis because each of those problems has the boundary issue. Nevertheless, each of those classification problems is relatively self-sufficient and has immanent for its own of reflexion. The problem of correlations between various spheres of culture (including art) is first of all examined in philosophy and cultural studies: in philosophy it is studied due to its connection with more generic problems such as the law of being. In cultural sciences it is studied due to its connection with culture and ongoing studies of synthetic character.

SHIFTS IN DERIVATIVE BASES WITH OR WITHOUT SOUND INTERCHANGE IN MODERN EASTERN ARMENIAN – 2017-1

Summary 

Yuri S. Avetisyan

Key words – Formative structures, Singular plural formation, Variation in structure, Preference Development, Lexical pronunciation, Exact pronunciation, Economy of energy in oral expression, Statistic.

In modern literary Armenian, the shifts in derivational bases with or without sound interchanges and the emergence of these forms are definitely connected with sound interchange regularities and are conditioned by them. Words of frequent usage have the variations of derivational bases. And, as supposed, it is mostly manifested in the word-building bases. Generally, variational manifestations do not have foreign words and terms, which, as we saw, undergo sound interchanges in form-building nor in word-building.

THE ORIGIN OF OLD ARMENIAN TRIPHTHONGOIDS ԵԱՅ and ԵԱՒ – 2017-1

Attempt of an asynchronous study

Summary

Vardan Z. Petrosyan

Key words – triphthongoid, borrowing, native Indo-European, Urartian, Shumerian, Iranian, interbreeding, substrate reality

The article is an attempt to analyze the origin of the two of triphtongoid constructions of Old Armenian-ԵԱՅ and ԵԱՒ. This main issue is attractive particularly from the point of view that in the proto Indo-European language, Armenian being one of its “daughter languages”, the triphthongoids are not restored. Old Indo-European languages also lack them. Moreover, in the main part of the latter even the composition of the diphthongs is shortened, but they can be restored for Indo-European proto-language. The survey in the given article discovers that the triphthongoids եայ and եաւ have various applications and quite a different origin; they are native, borrowed (they are borrowings from various languages-Old Iranian, Assyrian, Urartian and Shumerian) and are even a synthesis of native and borrowed constituents as a result of word-formation processes.

THE EXISTENTIAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SYMBOL OF THE WALL – 2017-1

In the works of J.-P. Sartre, K. Abe, L. Khechoyan and G. Khanjyan

Summary

Ruzanna R. Voskanyan

Key words – symbol of the wall, archetype, collective unconscious, existentialism, loneliness, absurdity, despair, God, personality, comparative analysis.

This article explores the symbol of the wall from the position of existentialism philosophy. The author uses comparative analysis to similar works entitled “The Wall” by J.-P. Sartre, K. Abe, L. Khechoyan and G. Khanjyan. The wall is investigated as symbol of despair, understanding of the meaninglessness of existence, the absurdity of life, loneliness, overcoming oneself and other realities. The fact that the symbol of the wall is used and interpreted almost identically by the authors living in different time periods and in various countries, allows us to admit the archetype of the wall.

COINCIDENCE OF BIOGRAPHY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAKESPEARE’S HORATIO AND THE ROMAN POET HORACE – 2017-1

Summary

Ara H. Yernjakyan

Key words – Shakespeare, Horatio, Horace, Maecenas, Brutus, Hamlet, Stoicism.

Comparing basic moments of life of ancient Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, his work, outlook at life, they are surprisingly common with the character of classmate and friend of Hamlet – Horatio.

They both received good education, both gravitated towards the philosophy of Stoicism, both lived discreetly. Severe trials befallen on the Roman poet did not forge a fighter out of him. To a certain extent, this also concerns Horatio.

In addition to these and other facts, one can review the famous characteristics given by Hamlet to his friend on the eve of the palace play as a kind of hint by the playwright in choosing the poet Horace as the prototype of Horatio.