BIRTH OF ARSEN DERDERIAN

Arsen Derderian [Terteryan, Soviet spelling] was a prolific literary scholar who dominated the field of Armenian literature in Soviet Armenia until the mid-twentieth century.

He was born on December 22, 1882, in the village of Shosh, near Shushi (Artsakh). He studied at the Seminary of Shushi (1892-1902) and then graduated from the Gevorgian Lyceum of Holy Echmiadzin in 1905. He taught for two years at the Seminary of Shushi and in 1907-1909 he studied at the Psycho-Neurological Institute of St. Petersburg. Afterwards, he shifted to literature and taught history and theory of literature at the Diocesan School of Yerevan in 1909-1920.

In this period, Derderian authored eight monographs, successively published between 1910 and 1913, about some of the most remarkable Eastern Armenian writers: Mikael Nalbandian, Vahan Terian, Hovhannes Tumanian, Shirvanzade, Hovhannes Hovhannisian, Muratsan, Nar-Dos, and Levon Shant. Those books established his name as an authority in Armenian literature.

He taught History of Armenian Literature at Yerevan State University between 1920 and 1953, and chair of Armenian Literature at the university (1929-1953). In 1930, he received the title of professor. In 1940, he earned the title of Emeritus Worker of Science of Armenia and three years later, he was granted a Ph.D. in Philological Sciences without defending a dissertation and elected full member of the newly created Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

He published his lectures on Armenian literature in seven fascicles (1938-1939), as well as other monographs: Observations about Our Village Writers (1927), Abovian’s Creation (1941), Armenian Patriotic Writers (1942), The Great Russian Proverb Writer: Krylov (1944), Armenian Classics (1944), Bryusov and Armenian Culture (1944), V. G. Belinsky: The Great Russian Critic and Publicist (1948). Some of his works appeared posthumously: Perch Proshian (1955), The Encyclopedia of Shirvanzade’s Literary Characters (1959), and Muratsan (1971). Two volumes entitled Works were published in 1960 and 1980.

Derderian passed away on October 6, 1953, in Yerevan.