Arqmenik Nikoghosyan1. Nowadays it seems to be possible to divide the Armenian poetry of the independence period into different parts. The poetry of 1990s is a complete entity in all respects and can be analysed as a separate phase. Literary nonstop process seems to form the next phase and some skids and circulation are determined by that. As a result of it, the pace of modern Armenian literature was considerably slowed down. In 1990s the creators of aestheticism couldn’t completely get free from their feelings of the previous phase. But even in this case there was some visible supremacy which soon would determine the features of modern Armenian poetry.

2. Modern Armenian poetry in its perimeter of the latest developments represents both the successful experiments to refresh the structure of poetry and some so-called “merited” persons with their tiring rhymes, pretending to be Charenc, a group of untalented persons with their primitive, simple (even vulgar) poetry. In other words there is a movement and the most important is that the movement isn’t in itself: nevertheless, though slowly Armenia poetry is progressing.

3. The development of Armenia poetry after the independence of Armenia is very remarkable. It shows that the statement that modern Armenian poetry is indifferent to the phenomena in today’s reality is nonsense. The truth is that the writers of the independence period and their poetry is the poetry of existence and state imposed by reality.

4. Anyway, nearly all the valuable works of Armenian poetry are the result of tragic situations and states. In this respect the exclusive historical acquisition made the Armenian writers face psychological obstacles. They just didn’t know, they were not acquainted with the creative happiness to feel proud for the bright spots of their national fate. There was a silence which was characterized as the literary agony of independent Armenia.

5. Finally, the existence of an independent state enable the Armenian writers and literature to get rid of a great number of burdens and be manifested in the pure aesthetics domain. Really, it’s high time to write a book about a human being, especially if the world literature is tending more and more to study the inner world of human beings.

6. But the independence leads to new complexes, one of which, in this case, is the entirely negative perception of ode-writing phenomenon. It can be psychologically explained to those representatives of the generation (Hovhannes Grigoryan, Henrik Edoyan, David Hovhannes and others), whose books, for many years, have imposed to begin with poems dedicated to the homeland, party, the establishment of the soviet regime, though some of them managed to avoid this.

7. As for some of the last soviet writers (Armen Davtyan, Vahagn Atabekyan, Nerses Atabekyan, Aghvan Vardanyan, Ashot Khachatryan), their psychological state was even more complicated. The new system, new ideological approaches, independence, which they were fighting for, gave their results sooner than they expected. In such conditions most of them remain silent unable to find a struggling scene. The conviction that this psychological blow was the strongest is proved by the fact that only Nerses Atabekyan continues to write in his specific language enriching the modern poetic field.

8. The silence of Armenian literature in the beginning of the 1990s is because of the absence of Armenian writers’ attitude towards the independent state of Armenia and the new reality. They were afraid of mistakes, they avoid to bless that moment in order not to be subjected to reproach like Abovyan.

9. In that respect, it is not accidental that the silence lasted until there appeared tragic events, discrepancies between the ideal and reality and deep contradictions in the process of independence of the state, and the reality also revealed the so-called defect of the independence.

10. In this respect, the literature of collections published during the Armenian independence period enable to make generalizations. The picture is as follows: three-four more or less remarkable names in literary field published new poetic collections in 1996, and a few in 1997. Moreover, poetic opposition towards the new reality, critical attitude towards the phenomena of independent state is already present in these books. It is especially evident in their collections’ titles.

11. From the point of view of existence and psychology especially interesting are the works of those writers, which appeared during the independence period. First of all, it is typical that the young writers of this period were mainly poets (Husik Ara, Narine Avetyan, Gayane Babayan, Arpi Voskanyan, Mher Arshakyan and others) .

12. The writer of the 1990s was in terrible emotional state, he had no sense of the future, no belief in the future and was avoiding the future. The past was soviet and the young writer trying to be new and different was sick and tired of it. He didn’t believe in future because the reality gave him no hope. The poem being a text replaced on a short space is very convenient for the young writer, because in this way he can be sure that his words won’t remain unfinished. Prose requires time, whereas the young writer didn’t believe in future.

13. The fact that the genre-gender preference was not accidental was proved after 2001 by new appeared literary events and entrances. Together with talented writers (George Tumanyan, Vahe Arsen, Karen Antashyan, Hasmik Simonyan, A. Gabrielyan, Edward Harents, Anna Davtyan and others) there appeared other writers, such as Mher Beyleryan, Hrachya Saribekyan, Harut Kbeyan, Hambartsum Hambardzumyan, John Tekgyozyan Aram Pachyan Sargis Hovsepyan and others.

14. The diversity of these names, their bold experiments and the nature of their genre experiments are generally connected with the improving reality . Nowadays there is more confidence in the future and in their abilities, and also in the social, political events of the country. And the most important is that it is especially evident in their works.

15. On the one hand modern Armenian poetry is full of talented names, whose works enrich Armenian poetry, but on the other hand it is clear that the Armenian poetry has become an illumination of repetitions. The poetic field seems to become empty. It seems that some young writers should take the responsibility of the process of poetry, but they lack boldness and the constraint hinder them. In this respect the picture in prose is more promising. A few years ago some promising names (Husik Ara, George Tumanyan, Hasmik Simonyan) couldn’t pass beyond the level of repetition mentioned above.

16. The most essential feature of the young generation is the complete refusal of classical forms of poetry. But, unfortunately, the way they use it isn’t always literate (correct). And the lack of full consciousness of poetic line as an important structural unit is also noticed.

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