AIWA Presents Newly Translated Books by Famed Author Zabel Yessayan
By Contributor // March 28, 2014
BOSTON, Mass.–Zabel Yessayan is remembered as one of the most talented
and prolific Western Armenian writers of the modern era. Yet, few of
her works have been translated into Western languages, and even fewer
into English. In order to introduce the English-language reader to the
diverse output of this outstanding author, the Armenian International
Women’s Association (AIWA) arranged the translation of select works
and release two books of Yessayan’s writings at a Publication Party on
Sun., March 23, at the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) in
Arlington, Mass.
The Yessayan family, with Zabel (second from right), husband Hrant
(back row, second from left), and children Sophie and Hrant.
The first book by Yessayan, The Gardens of Silihdar, offers a charming
account of the author’s childhood in Istanbul. as well as insights
into Armenian life in the Ottoman capital in the late 19th century.
Jennifer Manoukian, of Columbia University, translated the book and
added copious notes to explain the people, places, and events
chronicled there. The second book, My Soul in Exile,depicts the
dilemma of the artist in society, and also analyzes the psychological
effects of the rootlessness experienced by Diasporan Armenians. The
setting is the critical period in Turkey following the Adana massacres
of 1909 and preceding the outbreak of World War I. The novel was
translated by G. M. Goshgarian, and the book includes essays and other
short works by Yessayan.
The team of AIWA members who conceived the project, arranged for the
translations, and edited the selections–Judith A. Saryan, Barbara
Merguerian, Danila Terpanjian, and Joy Renjilian-Burgy–presented the
books and read brief passages.
Exploring exile and alienation
Writer, activist, and feminist Zabel Yessayan (1878-1943) was one of
the most prominent Armenian intellectuals of her lifetime. Her
prolific works in a variety of genres (short stories, essays, novels,
travelogues) reflect the cataclysmic events experienced by the
Armenians during those years and enjoyed great popularity when they
were published. Today they are almost forgotten.
A native of Istanbul, Yessayan graduated from the Holy Cross Armenian
School and became one of the first Ottoman-Armenian women to study
abroad when she went to Paris and enrolled in the Sorbonne. She
married the painter Dickran Yessayan and had two children, Sophie and
Hrant. Her first novel, The Waiting Room, published in 1903, takes
place in Paris and explores themes that were to become central to her
work–exile and alienation.
In 1909, she was appointed a member of an Armenian fact-finding
delegation to Adana, where she witnessed the aftermath of the bloody
massacres of the Armenian population there. Her classic account of
this experience, published as Among the Ruins, is widely regarded as
one of her best works.
The only women on the “black list” of the Armenian intellectuals
arrested on the night of April 24, 1915, Yessayan managed to elude the
police and escape to Bulgaria. The end of the war found her working in
the Near East, organizing the relocation of refugees and orphans. In
the 1920’s, she visited Soviet Armenia and decided to move there in
1933, becoming a teacher of literature at Yerevan State University and
continuing her writing. A victim of Stalin’s purges, she was exiled in
1937 and died, in unknown circumstances, likely in 1943.
Yessayan’s voice speaks to a diverse audience–young and old, Armenian
and non-Armenian, male and female. AIWA notes that these publications
will be of great interest to Armenians both in the homeland and
diaspora, and also to a broader audience of readers and literary
critics of Western literature. Yessayan’s works are relevant to those
interested in Armenian studies, in women’s history, and in the
multicultural society of the late Ottoman Empire.
The Yessayan books are parts of AIWA’s Treasury of Armenian Women’s
Literature series, which focus on the pioneering female
Armenian-language writers. Many of these authors (for example Srpuhi
Dussap, Sibyl, Zaruhi Kalemkiarian) are virtually unknown today, even
among Armenian-educated readers, and their works (many published in
small editions or in rare periodicals) are difficult to locate. To
learn more about AIWA’s programs to increase the visibility of
Armenian women, call (617) 926-0171 or e-mail
[email protected].