scholarly journals Re-membering Armenian Literature in the Soviet Borderlands

Territories ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arpi Movsesian
Keyword(s):  
2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Compareti

AbstractThis paper is a study on the so-called “spread wings”—a particular element of the Sasanian art that is attested also in other regions of the Persian Empire in Late Antiquity, including the western coast of the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus. The spread wings can be observed on Sasanian coins above the royal crowns, which are considered specific for every Sasanian sovereign, supporting astronomical elements, like the crescent, star, and, possibly, the sun. The Arabs and the peoples of the Caucasus who adopted Christianity used the spread wings element as a pedestal for the cross. In Armenian literature, there are some connections between those spread wings and glory, so that a kind of pedestal could be considered a device to exalt or glorify the element above it. The floating ribbons attached to Sasanian crowns had possibly the same meaning and were adopted also outside of proper Persia. In the same way, it could be considered correct to identify those luminaries on Sasanian crowns as divine elements connected with the religion of pre-Islamic Persia.


Author(s):  
Tigran Simyan

В статье проводится семиотически-типологический анализ университетского пространства Ереванского государственного университета (ЕГУ). Данное исследование является продолжением дискурса «Университетское пространство». Культурные артефакты ЕГУ описываются не с точки зрения культурно-исторического подхода, а с использованием семиотического метода. Детально описывается пространственное «начало» университетского экстерьера, выявляются семантические и парадигматические особенности центральной скульптуры, а также интерьерный барельеф библиотеки ЕГУ и средневековые маркеры университетского пространства. Центральное пространство Ереванского государственного университета семиотизировано различными скульптурами, памятниками, барельефами, являющимися знаками социальной и культурной памяти, отсылающей к разным культурным пластам: от Средневековья до советской эпохи. «Начало» университетского пространства маркируется ключевыми фигурами армянской письменности, ставшими культурными константами интерьерного и экстерьерного пространства ЕГУ. В визуализации истории превалируют образы видных деятелей армянской средневековой университетской традиции. Изображённые фигуры Месропа Маштоца и Саака Партева отсылают к прошлому, на прагматическом уровне указывая на древность армянского алфавита и глубокие корни армянской схоластической университетской истории. Кроме средневековых деятелей культуры, в университетском пространстве представлены также видные деятели новой и новейшей армянской литературы (Абовян, Налбандян, Туманян, Чаренц), сыгравшие важную роль в становлении общественной и литературной жизни, приведшие к европеизации армянской литературы, а также к парадигматическим культурным переходам. Анализ эмпирического материла показал, что диапазон исторических артефактов вбирает в себя также и советскую эпоху (соцреализм). Подробный анализ барельефа соцреализма показал, что он является стереотипным артефактом советской эпохи, пропагандистской визуализацией советской тоталитарной идеологии.The article is semiotic-typological analysis of Yerevan State University (YSU) interior space and external grounds. It is a part of Yerevan City discourse, which depicts separate part of Yerevan downtown, and fragments of the interior and exterior space of YSU. Moreover, this article is a continuation of the discourse “University Space”. YSU cultural artifacts are described both by culturalhistorical as well as by a semiotic method. Russian reviews have described the semiotically labeled spaces of the university mainly by a cultural-historical approach. The cultural environment has become the meta-language concept of this approach. The cultural-historical methodology does not imply a semiotic metalanguage and analysis. This reveals psychological and cultural values, different historical eras and signs of identity, etc. The article is a detailed description of the starting point of the university exterior grounds represented by the central sculpture, interior works of art and bas-relief of the YSU Library. The central space of Yerevan State University is semiotized by various sculptures, monuments, and bas-reliefs. These are signs of social and cultural memory, referring to different cultural eras: from the Middle Ages to the Soviet Empire. The principal sculpture of the university garden represents the founder of Armenian alphabet Mesrop Mashtots and other prominent representatives of the Armenian medieval university traditions. The figures depicting Mesrop Mashtots and Sahak Partev refer to the past, pointing to the antiquity of the Armenian alphabet and the deep roots of the Armenian scholastic university tradition. Among medieval cultural figures, we see other renowned poets and writers of New and Contemporary Armenian Literature such as Abovyan, Nalbandyan, Tumanyan, and Charents. They played an important role in the formation of public and literary life, leading to the Europeanization of Armenian literature, as well as to paradigmatic cultural transitions. The analysis of empirical material demonstrated that the range of historical artifacts also incorporates the Soviet era (socialist realism). Detailed study of the basrelief of socialist realism showed that it is a stereotypical artifact of the Soviet era, a visual propaganda of Soviet totalitarian ideology.


Author(s):  
KHATUNA GAPRINDASHVILI

The “Martyrdom of George Zoravar narrated by Basil” has reached to our days by only one copy of the manuscript. The work is preserved in the manuscript #8 (351r-354v) in Iviron monastery collection on Mount Athos. Georgian church does not know any saint with the name of George Zoravar, while in Armenian Synaxarions George Zoravar and St. George (5th c.) is the same person. For the identification of Saint George Zoravar we have compared the text of “Martyrdom of George Zoravar narrated by Basil” preserved in the manuscript Ath.8 with other texts of “Martyrdom of St. George” in both Georgian and Armenian literature. So, we have defined the common and distinctive marks among these works. The result showed us that the text of “Martyrdom of George Zoravar” and texts of “Martyrdom of St. George” are quite different from each other. We have also compared the “Martyrdom of George Zoravar narrated by Basil” preserved in the manuscript Ath.8 with the work of Basil the Great (4th c.) “The Martyrdom of Saint Gordios” kept at Thesaurus Linguae Greacae, because of some similarities between these two texts. It turned out, that we were not working with the Martyrdom of St. George, but of St. Gordios. The Georgian translation of the work “The Martyrdom of Gordios”, which was not familiar to the scholars until today, sometimes follows to the Greek and Armenian translated versions. Besides this, there is another translation of the work “The Martyrdom of Gordios” which is absolutely different from Greek, Armenian and Georgian texts. The Georgian translation of “The Martyrdom of Gordios” totally follows to the Armenian version which is mentioned in the edition of the Armenian translation. We do not have any short Greek version of Homily by Basil the Great like Armenian one that would have been similar to the Georgian translation of the work “The Martyrdom of Gordios”. We suppose that the Georgian text was translated from the Armenian one.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 411-416
Author(s):  
Jan W. Żelazny

In Armenian tradition, old age, with its grey hair, symbolizes wisdom and respon­sibility. The country’s tradition depends on elderly people. Opinions expressed in the Armenian literature of that time are similar to the ones regarding the same issue occurring in the entire Middle East. Only two issues arising interest and cause surprise. The first thought concerns the gossiping of elderly women, which does not mean anything wrong, but may rather be related to method of transferring tradition that creates collective mem­ory of a nation. The second question is close relation between old age and adolescence. Both children and elderly people are the basic groups in the community on whose survival the nation’s future depends.


2021 ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
Պետրոս Դեմիրճյան

Writer, publicist, philosopher, pedagogue, editor Yeghia Temirchipashyan (1851–1908) occupies a special place in the history of Armenian literature and, in particular, in the national-social, educational and cultural development of the last quarter of the 19th century. He was destined to live and create for our people, truly, in a crucial historical time, when not only national and public life, but also scientific and meaningful creative thought was undergoing rapid reforms. In the oppressive atmosphere of the Sultan’s Turkey, even the creative spirit of Armenians tried to find a way out of the developments taking place in the world, the sources of progress and the latest ways. In the system of communication and internal transfers, Y. Temirchipashyan gave priority to the present time. Soberly assessing the current requirements of life, he felt and realized that time has changed, the human being has changed. That is why, considering the Mashtots Grabar adored, he advocated the use of a manifests when assessing the complex phenomena of the transition time experienced by him from the point of view of the life and progress of the nation and society as a whole. In his famous articles entitled “The Evolution of the Beauty” “The Element of the Philosophy of History”, “A Hassle over Bringing up Girls or a Speech of Broom”, encouraging the influx of European literary, scientific and philosophical thought into the Armenian reality, he was against the intention to accept with open arms all the shepherds and currents coming from the West. At the same time, having mastered new aesthetic and philosophical trends, he also encouraged reading “nutritious, strengthening, awaking books”, and did not stop believing in the optimistic prospects of the nation and the Motherland.


Books Abroad ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Armen Kalfayan
Keyword(s):  

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