solved A) Â Write a short paragraph (around 5 lines each)

A)  Write a short paragraph (around 5 lines each) outlining the significance of FOUR of the following themes we have discussed in class with regard to their relation to the course’s focus on art, politics, and nationalism. 
1)Symbolism https://ccle.ucla.edu/pluginfile.php/4415266/mod_resource/content/0/6b%29%20Analysis%20of%20Avetik%20Isahakyans%20Abu%20Lala%20Mahari.pdf
Avetik Isahakyan Abu-Lala-Mahari 2021 ppt week 6, Lec 2.

Both lectures from week 2?
group of writers embarked on the search for a new, hitherto unexpressed spiritual dimension through the vehicle of Symbolism
Only the artist, specifically the poet have understood the deeper meaning of life and understood it somewhat, not in all its fullness

As a result, they stammer it’s immortal sounds
The role of poetry and art are presented as the highest form of cognition and expression 

The scientist reifies and subdues nature
Even the poet and artist stammer bc their role is to present not truth but allusion, a suggestion/indication by means of symbols about some deeper truth which cannot be directly expressed in propositional logic

From lecture notes: Only poets have understood it somewhat and they stammer its immortal sounds . . . Role of poetry and art as the highest form of expression, above the politician, priest, philosopher, scientist (reifying and subduing nature). “stammer” because allusion, suggestion, indication, symbols about some deeper truth which cannot by definition be directly expressed in propositional logic. To do that would be inauthentic, word as a concept-cage. Yet in so doing to distort its true being, to draw into space and time that which is beyond it. Issue of transcendence. 

2)Socialism (in an Armenian context)

a system of social organization in which private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control. 
The working class versus capitalists in terms of a context of industrialization.
Gradual emergence of the socialist theory and practice.
Madras group in 1776, 1786. Their project was built on the sense of understanding the laws of  history on that basis to critique the failures of the past, to build a much more rational project for the achievement of nationalism in the present with a future goal. 
This develops as a result of the enlightenment. —> Communist Manifesto/USSR
Seeking values of social for greater autonomy within the structure of the Ottoman Empire
Armenian political parties (both socialist revolutionary parties)

Hnchakyan Party

Argued for a politically independent Armenia

Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)

socialist party: seeks to attain their means, attain their ends by revolution.
Reforms for the Armenian community 

3) Dual Attachment (including as it pertains to the Armenian community in the USA) (Week 9 – Lecture A) POLITICS

Theme: Pursuing American Dream 
Major immigration to America from Armenia in the 90s

4)Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh)
-Week 9 “Born and Died” Ppt 
– Karabagh appears as Artsax, the original Armenian term for the territory. Karabagh (meaning “black orchard”) is a Turkish term.
– in 1923 Stalin apportioned Karabakh to Azerbaijan, separating it from the Armenian Republic by the 9 mile Lachin corridor as an example of Soviet divide and conquer policy in Transcaucasia).
– Armenian public opinion regards the enclave as an integral part of the homeland. “Nailing to the shaft” expresses the involuntary nature of Karabagh’s subordination to Baku.
–  In Karabakh by Gusan Igit  Karabakh was represented in an extremely interesting way. For example, in the poem “I” becomes the subject throughout the final verse (I mourn . . .  I call . . . I want . . . I long . . . I embrace . . .) Karabagh is personified as the addressee of the poet’s words, while the Armenians of the Republic are portrayed as a lover separated from his distant beloved,  the autonomous region of Karabakh, highlighting the partition of the original Armenian homeland.
B) (50 minutes) Passages for identification and comment 
Write notes on FOUR of the following passages citing the author and work and then dealing with such issues as context, speaker(s), addressee(s). Then elaborate the wider significance of the citation within the work as a whole in terms of thought, symbolism etc. with particular reference to the theoretical perspectives of Smith, Gellner, and Anderson, as appropriate. 
1) What is society but an enemy army, with each individual an unchained slave? When has it tolerated the flight of the soul and the soaring of sublime thought?
The Muse of Sheerak -“Fifth Canto” by Avetik Issahakian Reader: 317-334 

Society: “an enemy army” (its norms oppress)
“each individual an unchained slave”
law on the side of the upper class (officer class)
“When has society tolerated the flight of the soul?
“soaring sublime thought”: Overman, outstanding individual, artistic genius.
Society’s good and bad is a whip to turn everybody equally in the same way: Peer pressure and conformism regardless of the policies and political philosophy. No one state is better than another.

This quote comes from Avetik Issahakian’s The Muse of Sheerak, “Fifth Canto.” 
2)  Stop, stop. We’re Armenian. We need traditional theater. Brecht, Ionesco, Becket are for nations with full stomachs. But we, thank God, are not full yet.
From: Berj Zeytuntsyan: Born and Died (1995)
This quote comes from Berj Zeytuntsyan’s Born and Died.  
The speaker is the director and he is in conversation with the actor
The traditions of Armenian theater are contrasted with Brecht, Ionesco, Becket. The     latter are for well-fed nations. “we’re not well-fed yet, thank God!” Significance?
i.e. stuffed, satiated, jejune, déjà vu, bored with the ordinary, everyday.
In contrast Armenians have an enormously challenging lifestyle simply to make ends meet.
3) Custom and tradition are really strange things. A man works his head off, struggles to make a living while we three women are comfortably settled here at home, without a care, and sleep soundly at night. Why? That’s the custom! How absurd!
The Bride by Zabel Asadour PG. 229

Speaker: Arousiag

4)I used to smile. Oh, oh you should have seen me when I used to. Barefoot, I would run to the hills and I would sit under the cool summer sky . . . for it was cool on the hills in summer. I would smile at the sky and then my eyes would fill with tears.
—Smile like that again.
—No more. No more.
—No more for me, only for Agate.
—Her I knew when I was twenty-five and she was twelve. I was promised to her.
B)  (One hour)           Essay
Discuss its relevance to TWO or THREE of the works we have read with particular reference to the theoretical perspectives of Smith, Gellner, and Anderson. Try to provide a clear thesis, organize your essay carefully, and give particular examples to support your general assertions. 
Topic: Art (including literature) and politics have been juxtaposed, opposed, reconciled, subordinated to one another, and have undergone many other developments in Armenian society from the 18th to the 21st century. Explore a number of variations in the interaction of these two components in society as reflected in some of the texts we have read this term.
(week 7 – Taniel Varuzhan and Neopaganism)