Home > Catalogue > Venezia Arti > 27 | 2018 > The Archaeological and Ethnographic Description of Greater Armenia by the Mkhitarist Fathers of Venice Between Hellenophile and Armenophilia

Venezia Arti | Vol. 27 | December 2018

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Research Article

The Archaeological and Ethnographic Description of Greater Armenia by the Mkhitarist Fathers of Venice Between Hellenophile and Armenophilia

Benedetta Contin    Universität Wien, Österreich    

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abstract

This study is a preliminary attempt to reassess and redefine the aims that inspired the philological work of the Mekhitarist Fathers of Venice, particularly their volumes devoted to archaeology and historiographic geography, in the light of the so-called Orien- talist and Post-colonial studies. The Author aims to show the ‘ideological’ relation between the historiographic works of some renowned Mekhitarist fathers, namely Ghukas Inchichian, Ghewond Alishan and Sukʿias Efrikian, and the Father of the Armenian historiography, Movsēs Khorenatsʿi, particularly concerning the methodological approach to the historiographic description and discourse. The concept of ethnic ‘nation’ elaborated by Movsēs Khorenatsʿi, as well as the theory of dialectical relation between centre and periphery, is one of the most entrenched and productive values of the Armenian identity. In this light, the author tries to reconsider also the intellectual and spiritual motivations behind the monumental work of the three Mekhitarist figures that should not be encompassed by a (post-) Foucaldian lecture of the ‘nationalistic’ philological movements, as recently proposed by some scholars.

Published
Dec. 13, 2018
Submitted
Nov. 26, 2018
Language
FR

Keywords: Mekhitarist Fathers • Orientalism • Azg and nation • Philhellenism • Philarmenism • Armenian cartography and historiographical geograp

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2018/04/003

Copyright: © 2018 Benedetta Contin. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.