THE PHENOMENON OF FOOLISHNESS ACCORDING TO HOVH. TUMANYAN – 2019-3

Summary

Sergey A. Aghajanyan
The article analyses one of the most striking realities of a human – the embodiments of foolishness in the works by Hovh. Tumanyan based on cultural approach.

For the accomplishment of the study in the first part of the article (“His Greatness Foolishness”) the philosophical comments on foolishness, its peculiar features both as mentality and as reality of human behaviour are represented in general features. The article differentiates the expressions of individual and mass (crowdy) foolishness and involuntary and conscious (conformity) ones. As a result of all these, the characteristics of foolishness as a type of mind below the average level of coexistence and the peculiarities of fool’s behaviour are specified.

In the second part (“Stupidity as Boomerang”) the stories and tales by Hovh. Tumanyan presenting the individual foolishness are analysed. In the expression of this version of the phenomenon of foolishness Hovh. Tumanyan with amazingly anthropological preciseness presented the following realities: the fool doesn’t know that he is fool, the fool is unable to absorb even the least experimental coexisting knowledge, individual smart ones always win individual fools, the fool is characterised by insurmountable foolishness due to which he is unable of reflection, rationalises his mistake, blames the others and so on.

In the third part of the article (“Foolishness as a Disaster of Coexistence”) the works of the author that reveal the mass expression of foolishness and its effects are analysed. In these works Hovh. Tumanyan emphasises some realities typical for foolishness: psychosis of chain reaction or infectious influence, replacement of imaginative-virtual and vital realities, foolishness that neglects repeated life experience and borderlines with insanity, intuitive or calculated slavery and behaviour. For these and other reasons the masses realises with determination the foolishness of even criminal coexistence.

Through all these Hovh. Tumanyan underlines the most important precondition of expressing the foolishness. It becomes obvious both in its individual and mass versions when an individual or the coexistence tries to solve any mental problem.

All the analysed tales and stories are characterised by the high poetic level of fictional depiction typical for Tumanyan where satire stands apart. And here is seen the orientation and attitude of the author towards his presented heroes and realities: this very thing is analysed in the fourth part of the article (“The Author’s Orientation”). The careful study of foolishness in Tumanyan’s embodiments shows that by humouring, even principally rejecting the fools and foolishness the author never vaunts the ones who have that flaw which is the expression of his humanistic and philosophical essence.

The last part of the study – “Conclusions” summarises the results of the analysis.

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