GENRE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WESTERN ARMENIAN ROMANTIC HISTORICAL NOVEL

This article explores the genre characteristics of the Western Armenian romantic historical novel and comprehensively reflects on the creation of the genre. It aims to examine the relationship between historical fact and the artistic reality it inspires, as well as the perspectives of the genre's founder, Tserents, regarding history and modernity, the nuances of his artistic imagination, and his skill in transforming vital facts into fiction. The study concludes that Tserents, by revisiting and reinterpreting historical events from contemporary and future perspectives, established the genre of the historical novel. He utilized the writings of Armenian historians to craft his three historical novels, preserving creative autonomy but refraining from updating the historical narrative. He effectively manifested his ideas through realistic human characters, crafting not only patriotic and good literary characters but also critiquing treacherous and anti-national ministers. From a linguistic perspective, Tserents' novels, which span many historical epochs, have clear shared characteristics in their subjects and themes, the linguistic and stylistic techniques employed, and their artistic expression. The defining characteristics of his rhetoric is use of anachronism.