Heeding the Call of the Ancients: Reprised Voices and Awakened Cultural Memories of Sylva Kaputikyan’s Feminism

• In Event: Classical Memories, Modern Identities in Russian Literary Imaginations

Abstract

Sylva Kaputikyan, the most prominent Armenian woman poet of the 20th century, was widely published, anthologized, translated into Russian, and celebrated throughout the existence of the Soviet Union. However, the works that made her famous were those that adhered neatly to buckets of Soviet and Armenian identities: dedicated mother, adherent of Soviet-styled narodnost’, author of poems and ditties for children, and a staunch communist. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the writer receded from view, eventually disappearing from the Armenian literary canon. A new look at her works reveals a complex, nuanced feminist voice, one that unabashedly violates national and cultural taboos by exploring questions of female power and sexuality. This presentation focuses on Kaputikyan’s use of female characters from classical literature and mythology: Cleopatra, Sappho, Lilith and Armenian princess Nvard. Kaputikyan’s first-person narrator imagines herself as each of these women, creating worlds where traditional gender roles have shifted, and where women fulfill roles ranging from being defenders of their homeland to rulers of the world. This presentation explores Kaputikyan’s use of fictional and historical figures from antiquity as a form cultural and literary memory; by giving voices to these figures from the past, she not only revives these but also uses them to create an alternative universe, in which women occupy a central and more empowered role.

Author

• Margarit Ordukhanyan, CUNY Hunter College