The declaration “I am a woman” in the autobiographical novel “The gardens of Silihtar” by Zapel Yesayan

Abstract

The study examines the semantic ranges of the vocabulary of the autobiographical novel “The Gardens of Silihtar” by Western Armenian writer Zapel Yesayan. It also provides ways of interpreting the male-female problem.

The aim of the study is to analyze the declaration “I am a woman” in the semantic domain of the vocabulary that determines the phenomenon of femininity. This is realized in the chain of verbal-semantic open subcategories of unconsciousness.

The problem of the study is to present the explicit manifestations of the expression of the feminine, including the autonomies and affiliations, which are realized in the semantic domain of the declaration I am a woman as a phenomenon, through highlighting the main lexical-semantic subcategories of the language. The direct form of expression of linguistic features, which is realized in the novel “The Gardens of Silihtar” via verbal-semantic subcategories, is summarized in the subcategories - family, home, friends (collectively), children's toys, nationality, religion, gender, education, residence, of the novel, and contains - woman, girl, maiden, virgin, lady, grandmother, mother, aunt, cousin, with feminine energy, so their relationship with the feminine is based on logical and sensual links. The linguistic means identified in this type of autobiographical text serve to emphasize the fact that the writer identifies herself with the female gender and self-constitutes.

For Yesayan, literature is a way to overcome boundaries. And in that reality, her position sounds more radical, although the war with women in society continues by other means, more directly, with the expression I am a woman, on the tongue.