ARTISTIC IMAGE AND CHARACTERIZATION IN STEPAN ALAJAJYAN’S NOVEL “AN UNHEALED WOUND”

Abstract

The article analyses the novel “An Unhealed Wound” by one of the most talented
representatives of Armenian literature Stepan Alajajyan in the light of national, political and
geopolitical issues in ideological and artistic dimensions. The three-volume novel depicts the
difficult and cruel situation of Western Armenians during World War I and the heroic self-
defense battle fought by Fnditchak, one of the settlements of Cilicia, with historical certainty,
deep plot and vivid characters. The peculiarities of the novel’s imagery, the rich system of
characters, the principle of “coexistence”, i.e. the author’s ability to “move” the reader to the
first decades of the XX century making him the “participant”, the “eyewitness” or the
“witness” of the unfolding events, the ingenuity of “summarizing the feelings of an Armenian
in Armenian words”, and the original linguistic thinking have been studied comprehensively.