The article analyzes the East-West dichotomy in the prose of Louise Aslanian. The issue is first examined within the broader context of Armenian and world literature. It is noted that this dichotomy is a central motif in Las’s prose, and the author’s unique generalizations of this theme set her apart across the entire context of Diaspora Armenian literature, as she most profoundly addressed the topic within French-Armenian and Diaspora writings. Having moved from Iran to France in 1923, Las - unlike her contemporary French-Armenian writers - does not portray Parisian reality and Western civilization in concrete, tangible terms; instead, she leans toward a more abstracted depiction of reality, presenting the West as the cradle of mechanization and materialism. To contrast the East and the West, Las employs metaphors: for her, the East is the soul, while the West is the mind that transforms into a soulless machine; the West represents the individual, whereas the East signifies the rejection of individuality; the East is a fairy tale and a dream, while the West is a materialistic reality. The four protagonists of Lass only novel, “On the Road of Doubt”, face an East-West dilemma. One of them remains in Tabriz, where her dreams are shattered. Another, having received an education in Paris, returns to Tabriz, but the local environment leaves no room to realize that education. For Las, the way out lies in the choices made by the two female characters: one stays in Paris and joins the Communist Party, while the other to fulfill Las’s own unrealized dream and conviction - relocating Soviet Armenia, where, in Lass vision, the East-West contradictions are resolved.

KeywordsEast West dichotomy conflict soul mechanization fairy tale

This article examines the ways in which Armenians are represented in Azerbaijani poet Sabir Rustamkhanli’s poem “Return to Karabakh” “Qarabağa dönüş”, published on December 24, 2020. The study aims to systematize the linguistic, metaphorical, and narrative devices through which the representation of a military adversary is expanded into a dehumanized image of an entire ethnic group and religious community. The analysis employs close reading, critical discourse analysis, and reception analysis. Its theoretical framework draws on psychologist and professor Nick Haslam’s distinction between animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization; social psychologist Susan Opotow’s theory of moral exclusion; social psychologist Albert Bandura’s concept of moral disengagement; and linguist Teun A. van Dijk’s approach to ideological polarization through the “us/them” dichotomy.The analysis demonstrates that the poem predominantly employs animalization, demonization, the attribution of collective guilt, vocabulary that animalizes and massifies the human body, the erasure of the adversary’s voice and individuality, and the figurative schema of “contamination–cleansing” applied to the representation of territory. These mechanisms form a structural whole with the sacralized and heroic glorification of the Azerbaijani soldier. A further finding of the study is that the majority of post-war Azerbaijani literary-critical and academic responses to the poem not only fail to problematize or critically interrogate this language but also reproduce it through non-academic formulations such as “Armenian national disease,” “Armenian character,” and “creature distant from humanity.”

KeywordsSabir Rustamkhanli Nagorno-Karabakh conflict representation of Armenians dehumanization enemy image Azerbaijani literature critical discourse