The article examines Grigs short story Bear Hunter in the context of the bear narrative tradition. The bear narratives of Tumanyan, Bakunc, and Matevosyan are analyzed as different models of sovereignty struggle. Using Vladimir Nabokovs concept of artistic device, the article demonstrates how Grigs text transforms literary magic into propagandistic function. The appearance of wolves is particularly analyzed as a moment of artistic system deconstruction. It is concluded that Grigs story reveals the limitations of traditional artistic tradition under crisis conditions. The study contributes to understanding how literary language functions during periods of crisis and defeat, when symbols are stripped of their polysemy and literature is forced to seek its place on the boundary between magic and propaganda.

Keywordsbear narrative Grig Tumanyan Bakunts Matevosyan Nabokov artistic device.

This article examines Axel Bakunts’s adaptations of the fables by the medieval Armenian writer Vardan Aygektsi, as well as Bakunts’s perception of the Armenian Middle Ages. Axel Bakunts translated forty of Aygektsi’s fables, and a comparison between the Classical Armenian originals and their vernacular renderings reveals the writer’s exceptionally nuanced and consistent approach to his task.The choice of the fable genre itself also falls within Bakunts’s literary predilections and the broader context of the development of short prose. This was the last work by Axel Bakunts published in 1935, yet until the 1950s his role in the translation of Aygektsi’s fables remained unacknowledged. In 1956, a truncated version of the translations was published.The relevance of this topic stems both from the expressive content of the fables themselves, and from Bakunts’s interpretative strategies as a translator, as well as from his reflections on the developmental patterns of the medieval period. Most significantly, however, is the potential afforded by the vitality of the fable genre in uncovering the lyrical essence of literature—an aspect this article also seeks to explore.

KeywordsVardan Aygektsi fable Middle Ages Book of the Fox Axel Bakunts.