Moderated by Hanna Horn (University of Greifswald), the reading will be held in English. The author will be connected via Zoom.

As part of the workshop "Exploring Narrative Gaps in Literature. Identity, Memory, and the Absent", the Research Training Group 'Baltic Peripeties' is organizing a reading with the Armenian writer and literary scholar Shushan Avagyan.

Avagyan's debut novel A Book, Untitled is a poetic exploration between authorship and erasure, taking a personal and inventive approach to autofiction and the act of remembering. The novel, first published in 2006, consists of 26 1/2 chapters of seemingly unrelated vignettes. The text combines a translator's diary with research into two feminist writers of the early 20th century, Shushanik Kurghinian and Zabel Yesayan. Both were erased by both the Tsarist and Stalinist regimes.
Avagyan's literary experiment challenges readers to rethink authorship and voice, for words belong neither to the writer nor the reader, but unite past, present and future.
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The research training group 'Baltic Peripeties' is a cooperation between the Universities of Greifswald, Trondheim and Tartu and has been dedicated to researching the narrative constructions of the Baltic Sea region since 2021. The reading is also the conclusion of the lecture series "The Baltic Sea as a Scene for Turning Points, Crises and Possibilities", which was again organized in the summer semester together with the IFZO.
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Shushan Avagyan is a literary scholar, writer and translator. She has published the novels Girq-anvernagir (A Book, Untitled, 2006) and Zarubyani kanayq (2014) and translated the lyrical work of Shushanik Kurghinian, as well as the theoretical writings of Boris Arvatov and Viktor Šklovskij. She currently lives in Yerevan and teaches at the American University of Armenia.

Free admission
Photo (c) Shushan Avagyan