There are phenomena that acquire a special significance in human life, both in material and spiritual terms. This occurs when the physical acquires spiritual and psychological content and begins to develop as a certain part of the human value system, expanding its ethno-cultural and value-based significance gradually. It is probably impossible to single out anything more important things for humanity than air, i.e. oxygen, bread, and water. Civilization has always combined perceptions of bread with irrational phenomena in order to alleviate the material burden, often for different purposes. These purposes can be divided into two categories. The first, perhaps, is the following: “In order to establish institutional control over the irrational passions of the soul (energy) and the rational claims of the spirit (will) of the masses, various socio-cultural and artistic practices (bread and circus, bread and faith, bread and ideology) were staged at different historical times” [Arutyunian, 2020, 16]. However, what is called the irrational side of this problem should not always be explained by the first, because a person also has a natural desire to achieve spiritual satisfaction, which was formulated by the formula “Not only by bread” [Matthew 4:4], since after achieving rational goals, a person again experiences spiritual insufficiency, often even in this case, his spiritual need becomes more intense. This spiritual-irrational side of the problem is often provided by literature.
Key words: bread, text, context, value system, epic, speech, song
DOI: 10.22250/20728662-2025-2-112-121
About the author
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Tadevos V․ Tonoyan – PhD (Philology), Associate Professor, Yerevan State University; 1 Alek Manukyan St., Yerevan, 0025, Republic of Armenia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |