Tag Archives: Arpi Voskanyan

DOI: 10.57192/18291864-2026.1-100

THE DISCURSIVE FUNCTIONS OF BIBLICAL INTERTEXT AND THE ESCHATOLOGICAL TURN IN CONTEMPORARY ARMENIAN PROSE (A Case Study of Arpi Voskanyan’s Not for Sale Collection)

In contemporary Armenian prose, biblical intertext functions as a vital mode of expressing the value crisis and as a carrier of cultural memory, manifesting itself through the deconstruction of biblical characters and narratives. In literary studies, this function of biblical intertext is closely connected with eschatological thinking (eschatology), as it enables reflection not only on the idea of the end of the world or of history, but also on the collapse of meaning systems, the crisis of faith, and transformations in value structures. In this sense, eschatology in contemporary literature ceases to be a purely dogmatic or theological concept and is transformed into a textual and metaphorical tool through which shifts in the value systems of the modern world and the modern individual are articulated.

From this perspective, the prose of Arpi Voskanyan is particularly noteworthy, as biblical intertext appears there as a bearer of a cultural narrative that is subjected to critique, distortion, and at times ironic or parodic re-evaluation. The Bible thus functions not as a sacred authority, but as a framework of collective memory through which the changes and distortions present in contemporary life are revealed.