VIOLATION OF HIERARCHY AS AN ARTISTIC DEVICE IN HOVHANNES GRIGORYAN’S POETRY

Abstract

The article presents a comparative analysis of José Ortega y Gasset’s concept of the “dehumanization of art” and Hovhannes Grigoryan’s idea of the “disappearance of poetry,” examining their manifestation in Grigoryan’s poetic work. It also discusses Grigoryan’s 1970 essay, “How Poetry ‘Disappeared,’” published in issue 45 of the weekly Grakan Tert, interpreting it as a response to the debates in the literary press of the time surrounding youth poetry and framing the “disappearance of poetry” as a process of its humanization.

The aim of the study is to reveal how these two seemingly opposing theoretical approaches converge in the same artistic phenomenon—namely, the disruption of the hierarchy of things. To explore the role and significance of this disruption in Grigoryan’s poetry, the study employs a comparative analytical method to juxtapose the theoretical positions of the two authors. In addition, textual analysis is applied to examine the structural, thematic, and aesthetic features of selected poetic examples.

The research demonstrates how the inversion of hierarchical order becomes a distinctive artistic device in Hovhannes Grigoryan’s poetry, manifesting in several forms: the juxtaposition of existential concerns with everyday life, the focus on insignificant details within globally significant events, and the redistribution of importance between major and minor elements within broader contexts. The study further shows that the inversion of hierarchy described by José Ortega y Gasset, which facilitates an escape from reality into the realm of art, is transformed in Grigoryan’s poetry into a method of emphasizing essential aspects of reality precisely through their apparent neglect.