Empire, Exile, and Literature: Zabel Yessayan and Yervant Odian
Gomidas Institute/Centre for Armenian Information and Advice (CAIA)
EMPIRE, EXILE, AND LITERATURE: ZABEL YESSAYAN AND YERVANT ODIAN
by Dr. Nanor Kebranian at CAIA, 105a Mill Hill Road, London, W3 8JF on February 5th, (Thursday) at 7.00pm. Entrance free. Light refreshments will be available.
Sponsored by Gomidas Institute (London) and CAIA.
For more info contact info@gomidas.org or info@caia.org.uk
A riveting presentation that examines the intertwined yet contrasting literary lives of two outstanding Armenian authors, Zabel Yessayan and Yervant Odian, in the late Ottoman Empire. Writing in the twilight of imperial rule, both authors confronted collapse, violence, and displacement—but from markedly different political, stylistic, and ethical positions. Yessayan’s humanist realism and feminist engagement with trauma and testimony stand alongside Odian’s biting satire and cosmopolitan irony, revealing competing literary responses to imperial decay and shocking mass violence. This talk situates their works within the broader Armenian, Ottoman, and transnational literary worlds, exploring how exile—both forced and chosen—shaped narrative voice, genre, and historical memory at the end of Empire.
* Nanor Kebranian is a researcher, writer, and translator working at the intersection of history, literature, and law. She received her doctorate from Oxford University with fellowships from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Oxford’s Clarendon Fund. She is currently FWF Principal Investigator in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Vienna.
Her publications include Yervant Odian, Twelve Years Away from Constantinople, 1896-1908, transl. and intro by Nanor Kebranian (London: Gomidas Institute, 2025); Զապէլ Եսայեան՝ Սեմին Վրայ - Բանալի Գրութիւններ Օսմանահպատակ Հայ եւ Թուրք Կեանքէ, խմբ. եւ ներած.՝ Նանոր Գպրանեան (London: Gomidas Institute, 2025); and Zabel Yessayan on the Threshold: Key Texts on Armenians and Turks as Ottoman Subjects, transl. and intro. by Nanor Kebranian (London: Gomidas Institute, 2023). See https://gomidas.org/books
https://caia.org.uk/empire-exile-and-literature-zabel-yessayan-and-yervant-odian/
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