This article provides a comprehensive study of G. Khanjyans novel “Hospital”, focusing on the distinctive use of the framing device in exploring the issues of identity crisis, the search for, and the formation of a new identity. A structural analysis of the work reveals that the novel consists of horizontally arranged three-tiered chain-like narrative frames, each of which, in turn, includes other vertically arranged frames.Based on the principles of postmodernism, the article argues that the framing device serves as a tool for the narrator to understand social and historical-political changes by deconstructing reality and, by dividing it into micro-worlds, contrasting the Soviet hospital and post-Soviet post-hospital periods. Moreover, the article posits that the framing device functions as a cognitive lifeline for the protagonist, who stands on the border between two worlds. He uses it to separate things and phenomena, preventing himself from going insane in a tangled, chaotic situation, and later to reorganize and bring order to different aspects of his life. However, a detailed analysis of the novel concludes that the narrators efforts did not yield the tangible results he seeks in the realm of the novel.

KeywordsG. Khanjyan “Hospital” quest for identity post-Soviet Armenia frame story framing device narrative levels diegesis metadiegesis narrative function.