Category Archives: CORNERSTONES

Literary Criticism within a Methodological Framework

Summary

Sergey N. Sarinyan

Literary Criticism occupies a special place in the system of the humanitarian sciences. Its development as a science has a history of centuries which, originating from ancient Exegetics via a complex flow of methodological pursuances, reached our days. Literary Criticism is one of the branches of philological sciences and has its own method and methodology. The nature of the method is conditioned by the studied object’s overall content of literature where it deals with the natural and social sciences. The selfdetermination of literary criticism as a separate area of study starts from the second half of the 19th century and, already, in the 20th century it is subdivided into unique investigatory directions: sociological, psychological, marxistic, formalistic, linguistic, etc. Methods of global eminence are considered to be Impressionism, Marxism, and Structuralism with its two philosophical directions: Existentialism and Phenomenology. Neopositivism and Postmodernism give direction to modern Literary Criticism.

Summary

Nora M. Arissian

The objective of this article is to present Armenia and matters of the Armenian question in modern Arabic modern historiography. The Arabic Encyclopedia in Syria also seems to count this topic with its historical facts. The Christianity factor of Armenia is mostly presented in Arabic historiography. Mohamed Sadek al-Kerbasi in his book “Islam in Armenia” reflects on the notion of Armenia’s Christianity. Many historical researches reflect the Arabic point of view concerning Armenia and the Armenian question in recent years, for instance Fuad Hasan Hafez in his book “Independent Armenia” and Ahmad Fuad Reslan in “Armenia, Nation and Government,” dedicating many chapters to the study of the Armenian question in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It is also mentioned in the studies of Mohamed Rifaat al-Imam from Egypt who had many historical researches concerning the Armenian question, such as “Armenians in Egypt in the 19th Century”, “The Armenian Question in the Ottoman Empire,” “Armenians, the West and Islam,” “The Genocide 1946-1948”, etc.

The article also stresses on the Arabic press that has dealt with the facts of the Armenian question, especially lately dealing with the Protocols between Armenia and Turkey

Summary

Manuk A. Harutyunyan
After the tectonic changes that have taken place over the past 20 years in Armenia, it is necessary to clarify as to how the notions of social justice have been altered and what are the comprehensible criteria for justice today.

The urgency of the issue of social justice does not mean that is possible to return to the Soviet understanding of equality. As a matter of principle the liberal approach, which is connected to the formal equality of rights, is also unacceptable, because it does embrace the conditions for its realization. We are convinced that Armenian society is ready for a new understanding of justice, for the comprehension of “just development;” for the poor, protection, for active and enterprising people, support by the state and for the wealthy, laws. The new understanding of social justice can and should be grounded upon the linkages of social-national solidarity, guarantees and responsibility.

Thereby, the main slogans for Armenia’s systematic modernization are patriotism, democracy, justice.

Summary

Haroutiun L. Kurkjian
This essay examines the conditions of possibility for the Armenian literature to accede to the world literary environment. It treats preferentially the qualitative factors, ignoring the objective ones: politic, economic or administrative (public relations, organization of translations and publication markets).

A series of attempts follow to define the intrinsic, qualitative criteria permitting such an opening of national (this term including here “ethnic” acceptation as well) literatures:

1. National cultures, in spite of periodic waves of “internationalization”, continue their way vigorously, preserving their originality, while opening to leading world cultures and integrating some of their most universal elements.

2. Works in national literatures that are potential candidates for an opening indeed draw part of their nurture in the national cultural soil, but very promptly overstep it, acceding to a kind of a global, universal “legibility”.

3. In these literatures, such an access to the world level usually is not realized by works of popular, “folkloristic” type; but, mostly, by works that express a strong and culturally “extraverted” personality.

4. Then, in a given national literature, valuable works are not, or not obligatorily at all, characterized by any “national” contents. The mere fact that they are written in the given language is enough to indicate their belonging to the corresponding literature and culture – a language being itself, ipso facto, a bearer of national style and spirit.

The present essay, moreover, distinguishes between two specific situations framing the Armenian literature: the national statehood and the diasporian dispersion; having, for each of them, corresponding conditions of possibility for an access to the world literature.

Another major thesis, such an opening should be realized not only by works of foreign-language authors of an Armenian origin, but exclusively by works initially written in Armenian (i.e. translated from an Armenian original text); and more specifically by works that, in a bound of creativity, promote the mother tongue towards a new, original quality…

Continuous Clashes of Language and Soul

Suren D. Danielyan
The switch of a part of the Armenian writers to foreign languages became a usual phenomenon. In our days it is more actual: it happens so because the writers in the boundless Diaspora take higher education in foreign languages. Living in a strange area, they express themselves in a spurious language structure. For us “foreign” is already “vernacular” for them.

Nevertheless, the consciousness of our national history, our past, general fate not only hints about the inner pride, but also about the complex of obligation which maybe heavily loaded, alongside with the generous world in their sub-conscience.

Here, the homeland scientist opens questions of artistic texts of foreign language Armenian writers such as Piter Najarian, Piter Souryan, Sevda Sevan, Vahe Godel, Diana Der-Hovhannesian, Carol Edgarian, Ruben Meliq and others. The author of this article draws theoretical conclusions in the light of the well-known formulae of William Saroyan, Hakob Oshagan, Minas Teoleolian, Osheen Keshishian, Vartan Partamian and others.

For foreign language literature it is our national advantage that is important which is always in a contradiction to the artistic benefit. As a result, our tenderness often expresses the middle level work, because our national pain, cry often merit high admission, than the writer, who goes to pursue the way of artistic search. In this case, we have to work with the case where the event dominates on the writer. It’s the way which hasn’t subdued in our perceptions yet.

Summary

Gagik K. Yeganyan Ruben S. Yeganyan
The revolutionary reforms in 1988-2001, along with the disastrous earthquake in December 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh war and the blockade have had an overall and decisive influence on the migration situation in the country, introducing drastic changes into the reality shaped in the Soviet era. In these years, more than 3.2 million people were included in the emigration movement. The drastic changes of the emigration situation started with masses of ethnic Armenians leaving the country, continued with the dislodgement of around 200 thousand homeless inhabitants in the 1988 December earthquake zone, also caused by the influence of reforms in 1989-1991, but it turned into a more disastrous picture in the years 1992-1994, when within the period of three years about 1 million people emigrated abroad. Still, due to the influence of the reemigration developed in the next years, as well as the impact of other processes, in 1988-2001 the number of the emigrated Armenian citizens staying abroad calculated about 1.1 million people.

In the mentioned years, the immigration situation in the country was also damaged in connection with the fact of displacing a part of the population from the disaster zone and border adjacent districts to safer places, along with the intensification of the “village→city” and “city→city” flows. In the years 2002-2007, some positive displacements were accounted in the immigration and emigration processes, the future procession of which was again endangered by the influence of the world economic-financial crisis, as well as by the enlargement of Armenia’s agricultural grounds, and the development of the monopoly of the trade sphere.

(Conclusion and proposals)

Summary

Armen Ts. Marukyan
The Armenian Genocide is a historical reality awaiting today its internationalpolitical and international-legal resolution. Armenian historians have done a great job studying and presenting that crime of genocide committed against the Armenian people. Now it is high time to transfer the issue onto the international legal ground and, based on irrefutable facts, present well founded demands from the Republic of Turkey, the legal successor of the Ottoman Empire.

There are, of course, problems and complications of international-legal, as well as of political character involved; however, with the formulation of “a pan-Armenian conception concerning the elimination of the aftereffects of the Armenian Genocide,” it is possible to overcome these difficulties and achieve the restoration of the rights and interests of the Armenian people, and the elimination of the aftereffects of the Armenian Genocide.

Summary

Suren D. Danielyan
Western Armenian modern literature has a certain peculiarity of development – isolated character. Since its formation it has struggled for existence, on one hand, in relation to the Soviet Armenian literary socialist approaches and on the other hand trying to establish itself in foreign environment under alien influences and external different blows. In this work special attention is paid to the old and new approaches to this literature, assessments of the classical period, as well as Diaspora Armenian and Soviet Armenian estimations (V.Teryan, L.Shant, Sh.Sahnur, M.Teoleolyan, P.Sevak, Hr.Matevosyan, Er.Azatyan and others). The author alarms for the Western Armenian literary-cultural decline and puts forward proposals in the direction of restoration of the unity of the divided national literature.

Summary

Sergey N. Sarinyan

The author of the article, defining the subject of literary criticism, delineates the past of the Armenian literary criticism – from its origin to the present day. The Armenian literary critical thought originated from the 5th century. As it is noted, at its theoretical basis weret he theses about literature and art of the famous figures of the antique Greko-Roman and Hellenic culture,namely Plato,Aristotle,Horatio and Dionysius Thrax.

The grammar shcool directed the whole medieval Armenian litarary cryitical thought. The classicism originated from the 18th century based on the theorotical principle of Boileau’s “The Art of Poetry”. In the 19th century the historiography of the Armenian literature was formed owing to the works of Sukias Somalyan, Hovsep Gatrchyan, Stepanos Nazaryants, Stepanos Palasanyan, Garegin Zarbhanalyan. Biographic, historyic and cultural-historic methods are differentiated in literary criticism. The works of Hegel, August Cont, Belinski, SainteBeuve, Ipolit Ten, Georg Brandes and other famous thinkers echoed in the views of the Armenian literary ctirics.

The so called “revolution of methods” took place in the literary criticism of the 20th century. Sociologic, psychological, formalistic, Marxist and othe rmethods -up to so-called “new criticism (structuralism)” – were formed. Philosophy of literature has wide perspectives, i.e. the philosophic direction in literary criticism.

The history of Armenia and the Armenian culture in perspective of contemporary historical and political theories

Summary

Hamlet A. Gevorkian
The contemporary theoretical conceptions of history, politics and culture are based on the analysis and interpretation of the history of Western Europe. When applied to the Armenian history and culture, they must be specified and re-interpreted. In this paper the place and the role of Armenia and Armenian culture are considered in the historical context. The concepts synchronousand diachronous wholeness of culture are introduced and the continuityof the history of Armenia and of the Armenian culture is affirmed. The Armenian culture has expanded its potentialities in the whole cultural space in every historical epoch, and proved to be able to enter into dialogue with other cultures, to adopt and preserve historical monuments of material, social and intellectual culture. It is obvious the impact of the European culture and socal life on Armenia, the progress of the country in Europeanization, interrupted and suppressed by Genocide – massacres and deportation – of the Armenian population. Since there is not any negative prescription for the crimes against humanities, the European countries are expected to realize the Resolution of the European community Parliament (1987) on “Political solution of the Armenian question” (not mere acknowledgement of the fact of the Genocide).