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Searching for Our Voice(s) amidst the Erasure of Armenian Women’s Writings
I started becoming interested in Armenian poetry and literature when I was a teenager. As I am a Diasporan Armenian who has never attended an Armenian school, my mother taught me the alphabet and I tried improving my reading and writing on my own. That’s how I started collecting books in Armenian—from bilingual editions found in French books
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wonderful topic and insightful commentary . thanks so much for bringing this to out in the open.
my novel, cups of fortune, is an example of what you are talking about. it’s about time.
please check out my website. thanks so much
looking forward to getting to know you
Great article on the erasure of Armenian women in literature in all its forms, and the importance of breaking these silences. Diana Der Hovanessian, our Armenian American poet laureate, who passed away this year, brought the voices of women mentioned in this article to readers of English through the anthologies she edited and translated.
Dear Anais:
Thank you for your timely piece. you may want to read–if you do not know them already Anna Davtyan (my translator and a phenomenal poet), Violet Grigoryan and Marine Petrossian–all friends that I can put you in touch with, should you desire. Rupen can pass my email along to you. Also, i just published a book of poetry, A Poet in Washington Heights–in case you are interested:http://www.nausetpress.com/a-poet-in-washington-heights
Good luck with everything!
In 2005, Dr. Anahit Harutiunian published a very interesting and informative book “The Age of Notable Women” (Yerevan: Spiritual Armenia, 2005. – 144 p.). There are 3 separate Armenian-, English- and Russian-language editions of this book. It describes civic, educational, charity, literary as well as other and even at times political activities of quite a few Armenian women (and their organizations) in the 19th and early 20th centuries both in Western Armenia and in Eastern Armenia. It also contains a rich bibliography (over 500 sources) and an Index of names.
Thank you for this timely article. I am a Homenetmenagan who was raised to play hard and have the survival skills of a scout. Through my 20 active years on the basketball court, and then off the court in the role of coach or volunteer, for another 20 years, I continue to ask myself-why is it so hard to find better ways to celebrate women’s contributions? The organization was built on inclusivity, yet when you read the stories published on its centennial social media campaigns you cannot help but ask, where are all the women?
Excellent article by Anais Chagankerian!
“Often, when a female character appears in Armenian literature and poetry, she is either a loving and suffering mother, whose sacrifices we salute, or a young lover, whose beauty inspires the poet, a male.”
This is also very common in Armenian serials. In other words, very often in Armenian serials, you will have a female character who is a loving, suffering mother whose sacrifices we salute, and/or a young lover whose beauty inspires one of the male characters. A perfect example of this, would be my favorite online Armenian serial, Avaze Dghyak.
Thank you for speaking out about this lack of representation. I also questioned the lack of notable females in history books when I taught Armenian language for 25 years. Only women in the history book I had was Queen Satenig, wife of King Ardashes and the virgins who sacrificed themselves for their faith! I took it upon myself to emphasize Queen Satenig’s strength and power by telling my first graders that she capably ruled the nation while her husband was away fighting wars.
An exhibit on “Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, couple years ago, I chanced upon artifacts of Melisende Queen of Jerusalem, (r.1131-53). Melisende’s grandfather was Armenian. Her reign has largely been ignored. She was the acknowledged queen of her time and no one questioned her status. Why has she been ignored? I wish I had known about her when I was teaching.
Only recently I discovered Zabel Yesayan’s writings. Let’s hope more discoveries of these forgotten women will be made by people like you, Anais, and others, which will make our daughters and granddaughters proud Armenians.
I am dismayed and surprised tat Helen davidian is not mentioned in your article. Ararat magazine had her on their coverin the spring 1981 issue and published many of her short stories in that issue along with her bio. Please write another article about my mother to bring her to the attention of the current armenian community
“Why hadn’t I heard about these women before? Maintaining patriarchal status quo might have been a reason to erase them from our common history.”
You being unaware of female Armenian writers doesn’t mean there’s some conspiracy to “erase them” by a “patriarchal status quo.” A more rational explanation is that people like the works of male writers more and that women haven’t made works with the same appeal. I know that you personally like a lot of female writers, but the people in general don’t share your opinions it seems. You have done nothing to make a good case for there being a silencing of women or anything like that. A poet 100 years ago saying he was okay with Armenian villagers having women not speak at family gatherings is very flimsy evidence.
Giving us your life story doesn’t somehow prove that women are being “silenced” or that their records are being “erased.”
Excellent article. Thank you