The article provides a comprehensive analysis of Levon Khechoyan’s novel “The Book of Mher’s Door”, focusing on the use of framing devices to explore the continuity of Armenian identity. The structural analysis reveals that the novel unfolds through two horizontally arranged narrative frames: a gradual, chain-like construction of lectures and diary notes. Each of these primary frames (diegeses), in turn, contains additional vertically arranged narrative frames.
The article closely examines all narrative levels, emphasizing their relationships and functions. It argues that, in exploring artistic approaches to national essence and the reconstruction, modernization, and continuity of identity, Khechoyan uses the framing device to deconstruct the overarching narrative of Armenianness. Specifically, he disentangles the myth of Little Mher from the grand narratives that shape it, aiming to deconstruct and revise the discourses of national ideology.
Based on the information obtained through the analysis, it is shown that, as a result of the correlation between the two diegeses and the many narrative levels in this novel, Khechoyan’s path is characterized by several stages: highlighting and interpreting the traditional form of collective identity; combining pre-Christian and Christian paradigms for the development of a new paradigm of national identity and “reconciliation”; and various discussions and reinterpretations of revived symbols and narratives.
In this way, and through epic — particularly the figure of Little Mher — Khechoyan overcomes fears of losing national identity by developing a new, overarching paradigm. In this paradigm, the value system, as a synthesis of both pre-Christian and Christian values, Agravakar as the institution safeguarding this new value system, and Little Mher as the embodiment of public functions and the defender of these new values all play important roles. Moreover, it is precisely through the weakening of the textual domains and metalepsis that one can ultimately perceive Khechoyan’s interpretation of Little Mher. Mher is neither a hero “disappointed with the world” nor simply a bearer of an exclusively savior function — he is the guarantor of the preservation of Armenian identity.