Vahé Oshagan
Encyclopedia
Vahe Oshagan was an Armenian
poet, writer, literary critic.
, he studied in France and received a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Sorbonne.
He lived in Beirut
for many years and taught philosophy and psychology, as well as Armenian, French and English literature.
At the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, he moved to Philadelphia, where he taught at the University of Pennsylvania
. It was there that he published his volume of poetry entitled Ahazank, which incorporates many streets and landmarks of Philadelphia.
Like many Armenians, whose villages and homes were destroyed by the Turks in 1915, Mr. Oshagan drifted throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States, never finding a permanent home.
He was heavily influenced by French existentialists and had little time for those who dismissed modernity as a corruption of traditional values.
Marc Nichanian, a former professor of Armenian studies at Columbia University
, has called Vahe Oshagan "the most important poet of his generation". According to Nichanian, "for a long time his work was not even accepted as poetry. He had a hard time imposing himself as poet". He adds that The City was "the most radical book of Armenian poetry in the 20th century".
None of Mr. Oshagan's work has been published in English. The British poet Peter Reading recently translated one of his best-known works, a book of poems written in 1980 called Ahazank or Alarm, but it still awaits publication.
In his stark and desperate poem Alert, published in 1980, Mr. Oshagan wrote:
He was also the editor in chief of the literary journal RAFT: an Annual of Poetry and Criticism, for eleven years. The journal publishes English translations of Armenian poetry.
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
poet, writer, literary critic.
Life
Vahe Oshagan was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1922. His father, Hagop Oshagan, was a prominent writer and critic. Raised in Jerusalem and CyprusCyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, he studied in France and received a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Sorbonne.
He lived in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
for many years and taught philosophy and psychology, as well as Armenian, French and English literature.
At the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, he moved to Philadelphia, where he taught at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. It was there that he published his volume of poetry entitled Ahazank, which incorporates many streets and landmarks of Philadelphia.
Like many Armenians, whose villages and homes were destroyed by the Turks in 1915, Mr. Oshagan drifted throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States, never finding a permanent home.
Literary output
Mr. Oshagan, who also taught and wrote short stories and literary criticism, revolutionized Armenian poetry by rejecting its imposed formality, which shunned the concerns of daily life and themes of alienation and loss. He often wrote in colloquial language and was for many the voice of the Armenian diaspora. His first volume of poetry, Kaghak (The City), was published in Beirut in 1963.He was heavily influenced by French existentialists and had little time for those who dismissed modernity as a corruption of traditional values.
Critical opinion of his work
Many leading critics considered Oshagan the most important Armenian-language poet in exile.Marc Nichanian, a former professor of Armenian studies at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, has called Vahe Oshagan "the most important poet of his generation". According to Nichanian, "for a long time his work was not even accepted as poetry. He had a hard time imposing himself as poet". He adds that The City was "the most radical book of Armenian poetry in the 20th century".
None of Mr. Oshagan's work has been published in English. The British poet Peter Reading recently translated one of his best-known works, a book of poems written in 1980 called Ahazank or Alarm, but it still awaits publication.
In his stark and desperate poem Alert, published in 1980, Mr. Oshagan wrote:
Each passing minute is my first and last
I must grab the last human
And wrench some utterance from his mouth.
He was also the editor in chief of the literary journal RAFT: an Annual of Poetry and Criticism, for eleven years. The journal publishes English translations of Armenian poetry.
Selected works
- Kaghak 1963
- Ahazank 1980
- Tebi Inknoutioun
- Tagartin Shourch 1986
- Khoujab