Part III, the final part of Literature in Translation, takes us from 1920 up to 1946. The post-World War II era saw further developments in terms of translations which lie beyond the scope of this feature (but could form the basis for future ones).Click here to read the full feature.
NAASR’s Mardigian Library contains innumerable works of literature translated into Armenian from many languages. The works translated span from ancient to contemporary writings, and the focus of this feature will be on the 19th and first half of the 20th century when tremendous efforts were made to make non-Armenian (mainly western) literary works accessible to the growing Armenian readership in Eastern Armenia, Western Armenia, and throughout the diaspora.
Over the course of decades—indeed, centuries—innumerable Armenian textbooks have been published for the purpose of providing instruction in the Armenian language or more general topics to young readers. A substantial number of such books have made their way into NAASR’s Mardigian Library. Although no longer used for instruction, they are informative sources of information on past pedagogical practices, as well as frequently being charming and beautiful objects in their own right. Many, if not most, of these books show signs of being heavily used and are well worn. Far from diminishing their importance, this evidence of use, likely, in some cases, by multiple generations, has become part of the meaning conveyed to us today by these books.
The figure at the center of this installment of Treasures of NAASR’s Mardigian Library is the noted—while also being under-known—Western Armenian author and educator Hovhannēs Harut‘iwnean (ՅովհաննէսՅարութիւնեան, ca. 1860-1915), better known by his chosen pen-name of T‘lgadints‘i (Թլկատինցի). We feature here some publications of his work as well as those focusing on his work, including a special issue of Nor Kir [Nor Gir], the literary journal published by Peniamin Noorigian, which, thanks to Aram Andonian, included some previously unpublished works by T‘lgadints‘i, as well as two photographs from our collections.