The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

[yerazhishda]

Hello to all,

I have started this thread in the hopes that it will be in the same vein as the once active "The Western Armenian Language Thread", which at one point had active dialogue, explanation and debate about the correct usage of Western Armenian.

My goal in this thread is, as opposed to reading "classical" western literature in the traditional sense, I think that it would be extremely beneficial to our community to engage in readings from our own literature - which although largely ignored by academia and the public at large - has a very rich heritage of its own. I am almost sick of the fact that we as Armenians get looked over by the world community, as if our history and heritage is of non-importance. Our writers - Baronian, Raffi, Demirjyan, Shirvanzade, Hamasdegh, and Odian - are literary giants in their own right and deserve our attention. Not only do their works have inherent literary value, but from what I have read so far, they can provide insight into the Armenian mindset of the last two centuries. What has changed in the Armenian mindset and lifestyle? Are we really that different from the characters discribed in the book? What insights can we glean from these authors as a nation?

If anyone is interested in participating, please respond to this thread. I am open to any ideas that you may have. Do you have any ideas for books, short stories, authors, etc. we should start with? Should this thread and the readings be conducted in English, Armenian, or both? I was thinking that we should start with a more reknowned book that is widely available such as "The Fool" by Raffi or "Enger Panchouni" by Yervant Odian.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

I am almost sick of the fact that we as Armenians get looked over by the world community, as if our history and heritage is of non-importance. Our writers - Baronian, Raffi, Demirjyan, Shirvanzade, Hamasdegh, and Odian - are literary giants in their own right and deserve our attention. Not only do their works have inherent literary value, but from what I have read so far, they can provide insight into the Armenian mindset of the last two centuries. What has changed in the Armenian mindset and lifestyle? Are we really that different from the characters discribed in the book? What insights can we glean from these authors as a nation?

I put it to the wider audience that it is Armenians who have overlooked early-modern (i.e. produced in the 19thC and until the 1930s) Armenian literature - they have deliberately ignored it or minimised its importance because much of that literature was written as criticisms of other Armenians and their attitudes. And, as yerazhishda has hinted at, the same chracters, atittudes, and establishments described and criticised in those early stories and poems are still around and are still in a position of influence in Armenian society. About the only people who now give early-modern Armenian literature the importance it deserves are mostly non-Armenians and diaspora Armenians who are within or have been educated in Western academic institutions.

Here is a recent example of someone giving Armenian literature the importance it deserves: Professor James Russell on the poet Misak Medzarents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UH2qJssHgg

[bell-the-cat]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

....much of that literature was written as criticisms of other Armenians and their attitudes.

And this is another point that needs to be considered. If much of the literature was "by Armenians, for Armenians", how transferable is their content to a wider audience (even if it were to be translated into English). Are the themes the authors explored universal themes?

[bell-the-cat]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

BOOK OF THE WEEK: 'RAFFI: THE PROPHET FROM PAYAJUK'

By: Nanore Barsoumian
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/1...nian+Weekly%29
Fri, Oct 29 2010

Raffi: The Prophet from Payajuk, introduces one of Armenia's greatest
writers to the English-speaking world.

'Raffi: The Prophet From Payajuk' By Murad A. Meneshian Glenview,
Ill., 2010: 360 pp.

Price: $39.95, hardcover

Murad Meneshian's new biography, Raffi: The Prophet from Payajuk,
introduces one of Armenia's greatest writers to the English-speaking
world. Meneshian's diligent research is presented in a simple and
accessible language. His discussions often branch out into interesting
historical discursions. The information contained in this volume
speaks to the extensive and commendable amount of research he has done.

Through this book one not only becomes familiar with the life of
one of the greatest Armenian literary figures, Raffi, born Hagop
Melik-Hagopian (1835-88), but also his contemporaries, and the cultural
and political movements sweeping through the area at the time. Here
we encounter Khachatur Abovian, Taghiadiants, Mikayel Nalbandian,
Shirvanzade, and many others.

We come to know of Sara, the girl Raffi-or Hakob, as he is referred
throughout the book-had loved in his youth, the girl who had been
forced to marry the son of a rich man while Raffi was away pursuing
his education, and who had taken poison and died just before her
wedding ceremony. This, naturally, deeply affected Raffi, and he
wrote the poem "Sara" in her memory.

"Years later when Raffi wrote Kaytser, he included in the novel many
of the incidents and his ideas described in Sara. Hakob described
the village life with its traditions and customs, prejudices and
superstitions, persecutions and exploitations, wretchedness and
servility, degradation of women, religious intolerance, fraudulent
practices, love, illiteracy, ignorance, and backwardness... The
poem is a metaphoric compilation of the ugliness that Hakob saw and
abhorred, such as the oppressive social customs of forcing a young
girl to marry someone she did not love, and the illogically cruel
and ruthless religious practice of the Church's refusal to bury a
suicide victim in the cemetery. These themes of dehumanizing customs
also appeared in the novel khente (The Fool)," writes Meneshian.

Soon after Kaytser, its sequel Khachagoghi Hishatakarane was released.

These were of an entirely new genre of books in the Armenian literary
tradition, ones that focused on corruption and injustice in society.

"Raffi remains the first and the only person who undertook this new
form," writes Meneshian.

Following the publication of Khachagoghi Hishatakarane, Raffi received
criticism from community and church leaders, and especially venomous
attacks from "conservative and regressive groups." One such "enemy,"
Haykuni, wrote "a vitriolic critique of Kaytser...[which] compared the
heroes of the novel to the three assassins of Tsar Alexander II. The
malicious attack was nothing more than a vicious act to have Raffi
arrested by the Russian authorities," writes Meneshian.

Raffi was accused of destroying traditional family values and
for presenting Armenians as corrupt. Similarly, his work was
translated into Farsi and presented to local government and religious
authorities. "They accused me of being a political criminal against
the government and a blasphemer of the Muslim religion. The religious
leader issued a decree to kill me... Atrpatakan Governor Sahab Divan
examined the accusations and found them to be the plot of a few
Armenians, nothing else," wrote Raffi in an article. After hiding
Raffi for a week in his own house, the governor provided him with
bodyguards to leave Persia.

Attacks, arrests, and investigations didn't seem to break Raffi's
spirit. Finding solace in knowing that a similar fate was suffered
by literary figures before him, he wrote, "I am an insignificant
writer of a small nation, but such persecutions have taken place
among the largest nations and against great writers. France at one
time exiled Victor Hugo, but now the French worship him. Prison,
exile, and persecution were the fate of so many famous writers,
and therein lay their glory."

Raffi's novels, aside from making a case for the need for social
reform, also aimed to spark people's desire to join the struggle for
liberation. To achieve this, "Raffi considered it necessary to show
the people that Armenians had a nation in not only the past but also
just a few decades earlier," writes Meneshian. "He said, 'Search
a nation's antiquities and in a single night its dormant soul will
awaken.'" And so his historical novels were written with this in mind.

Raffi encountered much opposition, hatred, and attacks. His financial
situation was so pathetic that it was rumored he did not even possess
a clean white shirt to be buried in. After his death, as news of
his passing reached the ears of linguist, poet, and friend Rafayel
Patkanian (Gamar Katipa) who was in Nakhitchevan, Patkanian wrote:
"Oh, ungrateful Armenian community, sons of dogs! Eulogies? Oh, you
suckers of dog's milk! Hypocrites! You deprived him of a white shirt
when he was alive, and now that he is dead, you prepare to bury him
with fanfare and with the high clergy's participation. Oh, you wise
brother, this is the fate of Armenian writers and activists-a poor
soul with a piece of dry bread and a dirty shirt."

The volume includes annotations, an appendix, bibliography, and index.

It is comprised of 22 chapters, moving chronologically from Raffi's
childhood to his death, with the last chapter, "Raffi Remembered,"
being a compilation of writings, mentions, and praises of Raffi by
such national giants as Hovhannes Toumanian, Simon Vratsian, and
Daniel Varoujan.

[yerazhishda]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

And this is another point that needs to be considered. If much of the literature was "by Armenians, for Armenians", how transferable is their content to a wider audience (even if it were to be translated into English). Are the themes the authors explored universal themes?

Good point! I'm not entirely sure and it's something I'd like to discuss with others here who are probably more knowledgeable about Armenian literature than I am. If it isn't really "applicable" to a wider audience, that's perhaps the reason it is almost ignored in academia. However, I think that books like "The Fool" are written extremely well and do deserve at the very least our attention.

I guess I'm not as discouraged by the fact that it's not studied widely in western academia (we don't need their assurances that we have a valid heritage), but I am discouraged that outside of Armenia, Lebanon, and some parts of Southern California, the Armenian Diaspora in the West will read Western literature over their own even if it is translated into their native language.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

Good point! I'm not entirely sure and it's something I'd like to discuss with others here who are probably more knowledgeable about Armenian literature than I am. If it isn't really "applicable" to a wider audience, that's perhaps the reason it is almost ignored in academia. However, I think that books like "The Fool" are written extremely well and do deserve at the very least our attention.

I guess I'm not as discouraged by the fact that it's not studied widely in western academia (we don't need their assurances that we have a valid heritage), but I am discouraged that outside of Armenia, Lebanon, and some parts of Southern California, the Armenian Diaspora in the West will read Western literature over their own even if it is translated into their native language.

But my point was that it is NOT ignored by academia (not by Western academia anyway). However, those academics present it mostly as an insight into the society and the times of the writers.

Whether (if they were available in English) a general audience would find them readable like they would find writers from the same period from, say, France or Russia readable, I don't know. And the reading of such books is a minority interest anyway compared to contemporary fiction. And book reading in general is now a minority interest in a crowded marketplace - so it is maybe not that great a sin that even most Armenians have never read them.

[Mukuch]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

Dont forget that such literature was just simply banned during 70 years in Soviet Armenia.

[yerazhishda]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

But my point was that it is NOT ignored by academia (not by Western academia anyway). However, those academics present it mostly as an insight into the society and the times of the writers.

Whether (if they were available in English) a general audience would find them readable like they would find writers from the same period from, say, France or Russia readable, I don't know. And the reading of such books is a minority interest anyway compared to contemporary fiction. And book reading in general is now a minority interest in a crowded marketplace - so it is maybe not that great a sin that even most Armenians have never read them.

I tend to disagree with the last statement. Even on just a basic level, I think a basic reading of these texts in Armenian would at least provide 2nd and 3rd generation diasporan Armenians with a wider vocabulary in their heritage language.

I don't really think it's a "minority market" either, I think diasporans would generally be interested in these authors if they had even heard about them. Unless you went to an Armenian school, heard about them from your parents, or have done research on your own, I doubt many have even heard of Baronian, Odian, Hamasdegh and others - much less read them. I think that if they were aware of these authors and what they had to say, they might become much more interested in the subject.

I tend to think that Armenians might be able to glean some sort of insight from their literature and history. What problems are we dealing with today, are these problems cultural and have they changed over time? If these problems haven't changed, what can we learn so that we can progress as a nation? There is a reason Raffi was called a prophet...

[Federate]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

Enjoy this short piece by Gosdan Zarian (Kostan Zaryan) on Western Armenian (written in Eastern Armenian dialect) that I had scanned awhile ago and left on my PC

[TomServo]

Re: The Modern Armenian Literature Thread - Արդի Հայ Գրականութեան Ընթերցումն

That scan reminds me of the Արդի Հայ Գրականութիւն series of short story/poetry anthologies we had to read in Armenian school. A morbid inside joke most students would pick up on (after reading those short biographies) was that those Armenian writers who didn't perish during the genocide died from թոքախտ (tuberculosis).

Digitizing the books for personal use is a good idea -- mine are falling apart.