Alarms for Memory Sake -2 or the Degeneration of Man
Scientific Proceedings of Vanadzor State University Humanitarian and Social Sciences (ISSN 2738-2915)
2024 vol 1
Alarms for Memory Sake -2 or the Degeneration of Man (Based on the Plays “To die is so hard” by Moushegh Ishkhan and “An Hour Memory” by Karine Khodikyan)
Valeri Piloyan
Summary
Key words: literature, memory, genocide, reference to historical memory, repetition
Literature, being the guarantor of memory, at the same time can confirm oblivion, one of the versions of which is the invented memory. Memory is formed in time and may contain truth as well as falsehood. What do others expect from theliterature: how do we impose our memory on others but first of all on ourselves? We’ve observed that issue with a comparative analysis of the plays “To die is so hard’’ by M.Ishkhanand “An hour memory’’ by K.Khodikyan, taking into consideration the reality of our days. In M. Ishkhan’s play, a person’s memory pretends to become another person’s memory, which doesn’t become humanity’s memory and concern. In K.Khodikyan’s work, there are some temporal penetrations from the present to the past and from the past to the present accordingly, and a new conventionality is recreated with the such components as Armenian, memory, genocide, surgery, etc. The character’s words, actions and deeds along with what is depicted in the play are first of all the real search for identity, the very search for ethnic memory, because the genocide, the memory of it, sometimes the unwilling or unprepared opposition to that memory have already become a component of the collective unconsciousness of the Armenian man, which feels like something with a daily presence,nowadays expressed with a horrible consequence in the form of emigration, self-estrangement with the compulsion of globalization. We are forced into a loser’s psychology, as well as to its denial. Today, the greatest concern is closely connected with our personal genetic memory. Oblivion inevitably brings repetition. Let’s think about our future, passing on our ethnic memory to future generations without loss.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58726/27382915-2024.1-119