IMC 2024: Sessions

In this paper I will explore what kind of textual evidence has come down regarding situations of crisis in medieval Armenian literary production from the 5th to 15th centuries, and compare and contrast these descriptions to what we know about changes in social practices. I will first set forth what medieval texts consider to be crisis situations and if there are distinguishing patterns within specific written sources, observing, among others, changes and continuities in narrative patterns over time. I will then look into the kind of responses and solutions proposed to situations of crisis. Among the most typical textual responses were the so-called 'laments' and 'historical apocalypses'. In highlighting their different approaches to crises, I will go beyond the analysis of topoi and evaluate the value of these sources as witnesses to social transformations, the perception (or not) of certain situations as critical, and the 'narrative' versus 'real' responses to these. Particular attention will be paid to the way these texts explored concepts of identity and alterity and the impact of such community boundaries and/or the mixing of such boundaries when dealing with crisis situations. Among the social practices as responses to crisis I will emphasise strategies of land tenure and control of territory, including via monasteries and their patronage by military, land-holding élites, as well as via matrimonial alliances and the role of women as economic agents and cultural brokers.

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