Professor James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University,
will give a lecture entitled "Calm before the Storm: The Armenian Poet Misak
Medzarents on the Threshold of the Genocide" on Wed., Oct. 13 at 6 p.m. at the
Castle, 225 Bay State Rd., on the Boston University campus.
Russell's lecture is part of the Boston University Modern Armenian History and
Literature Series and is organized by Prof. Simon Payaslian, the Charles K. and Elisabeth
M. Kenosian Chair in Modern Armenian History and Literature, and co-sponsored by the
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).
The lyric poet Misak Medzarents, who migrated to Constantinople from the interior Armenian
heartland, is known for his lyrical idylls and elegies of nature and traditional rural
life. Part of the reason for this focus was personal; part of it was an attempt to create
in a period of stifling censorship; but part also, Russell argues, is a conscious project
to construct a new kind of Armenian rooted in land and arms rather than deracinated urban
life, trade, and money. Medzarents was also involved in creating a viable Armenian
national language. Russell will attempt to relate this to parallel contemporary
developments in the Russian Empire among the Jews: the forging of Zionism and the
resurrection of Hebrew.
James R. Russell has been the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University
since 1992. His books include Bosphorus Nights: The Complete Lyric Poems of Bedros
Tourian, Armenian and Iranian Studies, The Book of Flowers, An Armenian Epic: The Heroes
of Kasht, Zoroastrianism in Armenia, and Hovhannes Tlkurantsi and the Medieval Armenian
Lyric Tradition.
Admission to the event is free and open to the public as space allows. A reception will
follow the event. Parking is available at metered spaces along Bay State Rd., Commonwealth
Ave., and in the Warren Towers Garage at 700 Commonwealth Ave.
More information about the lecture is available by contacting Prof. Payaslian at
payas@bu.edu<mailto:payas@bu.edu> or NAASR at 617-489-1610 or
hq@naasr.org<mailto:hq@naasr.org>.
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