CAS Book Talk. Between Armenian(s): A Conversation with Arakel Minassian

Please join us for the re-launch of our graduate student Arakel Minassian’s co-written book Sahmanakhagh(kht): Hayerenn u hayerēně [Border-play: The Armenian and the Armenian]. In this book, Arakel and Armenia-based writer Anahit Ghazaryan narrate a moment in time that found Arakel navigating life in Armenia as a Lebanese-Armenian diasporan from Canada. Written as a set of correspondences between Arakel and Anahit on topics ranging from everyday interactions to specific musings on language and dialect, the book also narrates a meeting between the two major standards of Armenian – Arakel’s Western Armenian, the standard of much of the post-genocide Armenian diaspora, and Anahit’s Eastern Armenian, the standard of the post-Soviet Armenian Republic. Written in their respective dialects (and their different orthographies), Anahit and Arakel’s dialogue illustrates the growing and complicated interactions between these two standards at the same time as it stages a discussion on diaspora, home, and the various meanings of Armenianness in the present-day. First published in Yerevan in 2022 with a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Sahmanakhagh(kht) is now in its second printing. This event will feature a discussion with Arakel Minassian in English, as well as readings in both Armenian and English translation. Books will be available for purchase.

Arakel Minassian is a PhD student in the University of Michigan’s Department of Comparative Literature. His research focuses on 20th century Armenian literature and how writers creatively and differently engage Armenian and non-Armenian traditions across locales as diverse as Istanbul, Paris, and Soviet Yerevan. Looking at nodes like multilingualism, diaspora, and world literature, he tries to find novel ways of reading 20th century Armenian literary history. Arakel has also published several translations from Armenian, including Zabel Yesayan’s 1918 book The Agony of a People and Yeghishe Charents’ 1920 poem Vision of Death, among other works.

Webinar ID
924 1095 7575
https://umich.zoom.us/j/92410957575


*Accommodation: If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Email: -- armenianstudies@umich.edu