Category Archives: LITERARY CRITICISM

A Literary Sketch

Summary

Azat K. Yeghiazaryan

Key words – Isahakyan, Lermontov, Al. Blok, Armenian poetry, Russian poetry, translation, loos translation, free adaptation, romanticism, death, dream.

The article studies the three developments of the same poetic plot,that is, the death of a soldier or freedom fighter in the battlefield. In his time Lermontov wrote his famous poem “The Dream” , that tells about how a dying soldier in Daghestan sees a dream about his homeland and the woman , who thinks about him. Later the poem was shifted into Armenian by Isahakyan , but here the concrete details were changed by Armenian realities. In his work an Armenian freedom fighter,i.e. a fighter for the liberation of Armenia is dying. He died in his motherland – in the valley of Salno. He sees another dream, that is, the liberated Armenia. In those dreams the national colourfulness of two poems is clearly perceived. Later the shift done by Ishakyan was translated into Russian by Alexander Blok , who highly valued Isahakyan’s literary activity. Actually the poetic plot of Lermontov came back to Russia in the form of interpretation done by Isahakyan. But this wasn’t strangely enough perceived both by Blok and literary critics.

In the cotext of references to the doctrine of psychophysics by Wilhelm Wundt

Summary

Aram G. Alexanyan

Key words – Levon Shant, Hovh. Tumanyan, wayward, pantheism, evolution, life as a spiritual reality, the ideal of Great life, activity; universal life creation, collective will.

Biophilosophy of Levon Shant and Hovh. Tumanyan has never become a separate theme for investigation by revealing the philosophical imprint of their worldview. This issue was partly touched upon in the written monographs and articles but has never been studied completely and thoroughly. Some reasearchers have pointed out that Shant had been the student of Wilhelm Wundt, but his scientific and literary heritage was never considered in the cotext of the doctrine of the German philosopher.

Moreover, the literary heritage of Hovh. Tumanian was evaluated in the field of studies devoted to him by value-based forms deriving from Soviet ideology (realism, the expresser of social protest, writer of village life, the singer of the nation’s aims, hopes and feelings, popularity and so on). To this was added the irrelevan and simplified apologetics, that is, the praise that flooded the field of studies devoted to Tumanyan. We believe that both the biophilosophy and litearary heritage of Shant and Tumanyan do need profound and comprehensive specialized study.

The aim of combined study of the biophilosophy of Levon Shant and Hovhannes Tumanya carried out in the article is to completely outline, as much as possible, the cultural transformation of Wundt’s doctrine into the litearary heritage of Armenian thinkers

The reference to the field of studies devoted to Shant, in essence, is intended to revise its relations with Nietzsche, symbolists, the precise questionings of the time and to propose an effective research method for examining his works.

The perceptions of Hovh. Tumanyan deriving from Wundt’s doctrine also have fundamental nature (a/ theory of evolution; b/ the necessity of perceiving the nations’ psychology; c/ classification of the world as a spiritual relity; e/ universal unity of mankind and ideals and so on).

To this geographical determinism and cultural-historical principle is added.

Summary

Jenia A. Kalantaryan

Key words – imaginary; fictional spaces; cultural tradition; influence and individuality; autobiography; village prose, city prose; style, ideological direction; art of the narrative.

The article discusses metamorphoses of the tradition of creating imaginary fictional space (Yoknapatawpha, Macondo, Tsmakut) inthe prose of VahagnGrigoryan. It is shown that byobserving certain patterns, through the means of the ideological direction of his inquiry, peculiarity of his art of the narrative and particularity of style, he creates original prose that advantageously differs from the ones typical forprevious writers, as well as,distinguishes his work in the framework ofthe current Armenian literary landscape.

Summary

Tatevik H. Merjanyan

Key words – suicide, psychoanalysis, introspection, psychology, lifestyle, will qualities, self-revelation, epistolary novelette, hagiography, intertextuality.

The aim of the given publication is to study and evaluate the epistolary novelette by Nar-Dos “An na Saroyan”. Here the most interesting thing is that in this considered work the author observes psychologically deep and divergent phenomenon. In the study the philosophical idea of suicide is crucial. It concludes that Nar-Dos has directly spoken about the turbulences taking place in person’s introspective world that have little or almost nothing to do with the outer circumstances.

Summary

Sose B. Poghosyan

Key words – The School of Ashugh’s (troubadours) of Nor Jugha; ashugh(troubadour); theimage pattern cliché; love songs; blazon songs; medieval poem; ode; medley poem.

The aim of this article is to study the forms of manifestation of the theme of love in the Iranian- Armenian school of ashughs (troubadours) of Nor Jugha. As troubadours’ literature assumes, the literary conception of love here is quite crucial. Ashughs’ characters and functions come to confirm the real perception of ‘Ashugh” term, which is amorous singer. The latter is determined as a multilateral artist, who is both the author and the performer of his songs. Woman is worshiped as the object of love. The act of loving was in itself ennobling and refining one, the means to the fullest expression of whichwere potentially fine and elevated in human nature. Woman gradually gets revived and by gaining voice and character, becomes the part in that love game.

A special notice has been paid to the “Ashugh” word etymology. Its manifestations and functional meaning in different in nations’ languages that had examined Ashughs’ heritage. The theoretical part is based on the carols of famous troubadours such as GhulEgazi, BagherOghli, Amir Oghli, GhulHovhannessi, QeshishOghli and HartunOghli. The author has observed the expression of the classic contributions and image patterns in the love poems of ashughs, has emphasized the presence of the original manifestations, through which the role of the first Armenian school of ashugh’s in Nor Jugha in the context of the literary- cultural life of the 17- 18th centuries has been valued.

Summary

Albert A. Makaryan

Key words – Hakob Paronyan; Turkish language by Armenian letters; “If the Mountain Doesn’t Go to Prophet, the Prophet Goes to the Mountain”; genre; comic narration; dialogue; “alafranka”, the comic; satire; “Uncle Paghtasar”.

The present publication is devoted to the analysis of one of the interesting literary piece by Armenian genius humorist writer Hakob Paronyan (1843-1891) written in Turkish language with Armenian letters and entitled “If the Mountain Doesn’t Go to Prophet, the Prophet Goes to the Mountain”, which is a dramatic extensive comic narration: by the way, this analysis is carried out for the first time in philology. The author testifies that in this creation Hakob Paronyan has undertaken a brave experiment: he has broken the structure of classic novel, i.e. he has taken away the narration from the narrator and the whole comic narration from the first lines up to the end is composed by dialogues, which, in essence, has brought this creation near to dramatic literary work. As a result of the lack of the author’s narration, the humorist writer has created a literary work that shines with alive and vivid images of clashes between the old and the new that are taking place in the society

Summary

Ashkhen E. Jrbashyan

Key words – versification, metrics, numerical verse, dimensional verse, accentuated verse, “Armenian metre”, metric foot, stress, poetical member.

The article attempts for the first time to systemize and present the general picture and fundamental issues of Armenian metrics of Pre-Abeghyan period which includes 18th century and the early 20th century. The author justifies the fact that already in 18th -19th centuries there were serious preconditions for the formation of Armenian metrics which were connected with the development of grammatology, as well as, with the enrichment of main artistic experience and enhancement of translation literature. The Armenian versifiers of that period revealed not only the nature of Old Armenian and Medieval verse but also the nature of the new verse composed in ashkharabar (New Armenian language): they also pointed the influences of other languages on Armenian metrics. These all factors created some preconditions for the further serious studies of versification.

Summary

Khachik A. Harutyunyan

Key words – scribes, lexicography, word formation structures, historical lexicology, Classical Armenian, Middle Armenian.

Armenian manuscripts are rich in colophons which provide abundant material for dictionaries covering different periods of the development of Armenian language. In this article, we examine the relationship between Armenian dictionaries and colophons, which we present in three groups: a. words, which are known to dictionaries only from the colophons. b. words, which are known to dictionaries in one example, but the colophonsgive other testimonies. c. words attested in dictionaries, the older usages of which we find in the colophons of the Armenian manuscripts. A number of new words that are not attested in Armenian dictionaries is also presented with the study of their formation structures.

Summary

Marine D. Ghazaryan

Key words – “The Humbles”, qoqur, love, sex, gender, psychological identification, woman, waiting, dream, reality, inner drama.

The Armenian diaspora writer Hagop Oshagan had a number of significant principles, to perceive and illustrate reality, one of which was based on the absolutization of sex. The best examples of viewing literature in this regard, is the collection “The Humbles” (1920). In “The Humbles” Oshagan mostly created characters of a certain human type – that of the poor, the wretched, and the mad, ones who he called with the generalized name of qoqur. Qoqurs are individuals, who due to mental, physical impairments, or by the whim of fate have become qoqurs from within. Qoqurs, created by Oshagan, are mainly men deprived of assumed male traits. The society was not willing to give these men a wife, and this is where their drama unfolds. As every society has certain cultural norms that shape the gender relations in the society, we have interpreted Oshakan’s characters, behavior from socialcultural aspects. At the beginning of the 20th century when in the scientific vocabulary there was no distinction between “sex” and “gender” terms, on the example of his heroes the writer shows the gender is related to society expectations and is not just a biological issue. Although gender was mentioned back in different works written in the 1300s, however the terms “gender” and “sex” were coined in the scientific terminology in 1950s. Whether Oshakan was aware of them or not is difficulat to say since there is no word “gender” in any of the stories. But the fact that the author realized the difference between biological and psychological sexes is obvious. This fact allows us to claim that the ability to depict the unconscious aesthetically is typical of Oshakan as a writer.

Summary

Albert A. Makaryan
Astghik V. Soghoyan

Key words – tale, code, symbol, plot, Ch. Perrault, Brothers Grimm, “Little Red Riding Hood”, Hovh. Tumanyan, “Karmrik” (The Reddish) , H. Paronyan, “The Red Varduk (Rosette)”.

The article is dedicated to the study of versions and elaborations of rendering-translations of the worldwide known tale “Little Red Riding Hood”. It examines the folklore versions of the tale (“Stab Peter’s Hardships”, “Grandmother’s Story”) and elaborations by Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm. But the main emphasis of the study is put upon genius humorist writer Hakob Pa¬ron¬yan’s free translation-rendering carried out on Charles Perrault’s version. It is stated that each of the versions bears its philosophy of time and place and the internal stamp left by the interpreter or by the author. Hakob Paronyan, for instance, staying close to the main plot and ending of the original version adapts the work to the Armenian child’s taste and psychology and by using certain lingo stylistic peculiarities and changes, transmits national color to the notable tale, eliminating the existing sexual subtext.