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literature That Rewards The Reader
A perfectly executed anthology of Armenian literary masterpieces in translation. The range of readings is unusually wide and varied, encompassing as it does the entire literary panorama of this ancient civilization, from its beginnings in the oral tradition right up to the end of the fifth century. An exceptional reference book for all types of rteaders!
An absolute must to read volumes 2 and 3 also ! A first in any ethnic literature within three volumes.
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TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT ARNOTM.A. ... Read more

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This volume offers a comprehensive guide to Armenian writers and literature spanning five centuries. Combining features of a reference work, bibliographic guide and literary history, it records the output of almost 400 authors both in Armenia and in the communities of the Armenian diaspora. ... Read more

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"Writers of Disaster" is an ambitious undertaking by one of the foremost authorities on modern Armenian literature. Marc Nichanian, holder of the Armenian studies chair at Columbia University in New York, takes a fresh and uncompromising look at twentieth-century Armenian history and literature.

The focus of this first volume is the historical phenomenon of the Armenian national revolution--the movement of national uprising among Armenians at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century--and its literary reception in Soviet Armenia.

The volume consists of essays on four major twentieth-century Armenian authors: Yeghishé Charents, Gurgen Mahari, Zabel Esayan, and Vahan Totovents.

All four authors lived through the national revolution. For all four of them, "the national idea was a perverted and murderous one." Ironically, however, all four were condemned to death or exile precisely for nationalism, victims of Stalin's purges.

Nichanian addresses a burning question that historians and diarists have avoided for the better part of a century: "How are we to understand the link between this movement of national liberation and the extermination of the Ottoman Armenians during World War I?"

To answer this question, Nichanian turns to literature: "Do writers and poets have more to say about the national revolution and its relatedness to the Catastrophe than, say, the actors themselves or the historians, or, again, the political interpreters of the events?" Nichanian writes in his preface. "Yes, they have, but not because they are able to see the historical circumstances with more insight, or because their interpretations are more accurate. They have more to say because of the power of literature, because literature is primarily, although paradoxically, linked to the work of mourning, and is able to explore the intricacies of mourning in its possibility and, more often, its impossibility."

The book features translations of long excerpts from Charents's "Requiem Æternam in Memory of Komitas" and "The Nayirian Dauphin"; Mahari's "Burning Gardens"; Esayan's "In the Ruins"; and Totovents's "New York." These literary translations, beautifully executed by G.M. Goshgarian and Ishkhan Jinbashian, are required reading for everyone with an interest in Armenian culture. That includes readers of Armenian, since the translations include passages that censors excluded from published versions of these works in Soviet Armenia. ... Read more

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Excerpt:COMPRISING POETRY, DRAMA, FOLK-LORE, AND CLASSIC TRADITIONS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FOR FIRST TIME WITH A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT ARNOT, M.A. REVISED EDITION 1904 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION The literature of ancient Armenia that is still extant is meagre in quantity and to a large extent ecclesiastical in tone. To realize its oriental color one must resort entirely to that portion which deals with the home life of the people, with their fasts and festivals, their emotions, manners, and traditions. The ecclesiastical character of much of the early Armenian literature is accounted for by the fact that Christianity was preached there in the first century after Christ, by the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, and that the Armenian Church is the oldest national Christian Church in the world. It is no doubt owing to the conversion of the entire Armenian nation under the passionate preaching of Gregory the Illuminator that most of the literary products, of primitive Armeniathe mythological legends and chants of heroic deeds sung by bardsare lost. The Church would have none of them. Gregory not only destroyed the pagan temples, but he sought to stamp out the pagan literaturethe poetry and recorded traditions that celebrated the deeds of gods and goddesses and of national heroes. He would have succeeded, too, had not the romantic spirit of the race clung fondly to their ballads and folk-lore. Ecclesiastical historiographers in referring to those times say quaintly enough, meaning to censure the people, that in spite of their great religious advantages the Armenians persisted in singing some of their heathen ballads as late as the twelfth century. Curiously enough, we owe the fragments we possess of early Armenian poetry to these same ecclesiastical critics. These fragments suggest a popular poesy, stirring and full of powerful imagery, employed mostly in celebrating royal marriages, religious feasts, and containing dirges for the dead, and ballads of cu... ... Read more

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This concluding volume to a comprehensive overview of Armenian literature brings together superb translations of works central to Armenian identity, from the eighteenth century onward. ... Read more

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The second of a three-volume comprehensive anthology of Armenian literature in English translation, this work covers the medieval period. ... Read more

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This volume goes through the pertinent moments in Armenian history to prepare an understanding of perhaps the most important fact of Armenian life, the genocide of 1915 which gave rise to the Armenian Diaspora. It employs a theoretical approach developed by Jurgen Link called collective symbols. ... Read more

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This is a translated selection of the writings of Vahram Mavian which express the concerns and anxieties surrounding the first generation Armenians living outside their homeland. The text articulates his concern with personal problems, the precarious state of Armenian language and culture, the preservation of cultural identity, and the diminishing interest of the next generation in their cultural legacy. ... Read more

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TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT ARNOT, M.A. ... Read more

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Poetry, drama, and folk-lore translated for the first time ... Read more

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This is a collection of 19 articles written over the last 30 years - they represent Thomson's work in Armenian studies. The essays deal with the origins of Armenian Christian literature and the development of an individual literary culture. Original and translated texts are addressed. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Literary Collections / Continental European; ... Read more