Yevprime Avedisian (Armenian: Եւփրիմէ Աւետիսեան, 1872–1950), also known by her pen name Annais, Anais or Anayis, was an Armenian poet and short story writer. Writing poems about the female body and sexual desire, she contributed to literary journals in Istanbul and Paris. She is remembered in particular for her autobiography Յուշերս (My Recollections), Paris, 1949.[1][2] She participated in salons in the Ottoman Empire as they allowed women to mix with men without being considered disreputable.[3]
Avedisian's date of birth has not been firmly established. The years 1863 and 1872 are the most probable.[4] In his 1973 Biographical Dictionary (Կենսագրական բառարան), G. Stepanyan gives it as 1872.[5]
Born in Constantinople, Yevprime Hagop Avedisian was a member of the Chopanyan family from Kemaliye in Eastern Anatolia. After studying at the Armenian Makruhyats School, she attended the Fourier School in order to improve her French and took private lessons in Armenian from the poets Tovmas Terzian and Khoren Nar Pey. Her poetry was first published in the Armenian revue Massis in 1893. She went on to contribute both prose and verse to various periodicals. As a result of the Hamidian massacres at the end of the 19th century, she spent a period in Switzerland but returned to Constantinople after the Ottoman Constitution in 1908, contributing to various journals.[5]
In 1922, she moved to Paris where she spent the rest of her life. She continued to write for French Armenian literary revues such as Anahit (Անահիտ). A collection of her poems was published in 1942 as Այգ և վերջալույս (Garden at the End) and her memoires appeared in 1949.[5][6]
References edit
- ^ "Artist and Revolutionary: Panos Terlemezian as an Ottoman Armenian Painter". Études arméniennes contemporaines. 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "Armenian Heritage and Memory Beyond the Borders: Annais (Yevprime Avedisian)" (PDF). Armenian Culture and Solidarity Association. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ Daskalova, Krassimira (September 2008). Aspasia: The International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European Women's and Gender History. Berghahn Books. pp. 53–. ISBN 978-1-84545-634-4.
- ^ a b "Անայիս, 1863-1950 (Personal Name)" (in Armenian). National Library of Armenia. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
- ^ a b c Գառնիկ Ստեփանյան (Garnik Stepanyan) (1973). Կենսագրական բառարան, հատոր Ա (Biographical dictionary. H. A). «Հայաստան» (Armenia). p. 91.
- ^ "Anayis (1872-1950)" (in French). BnF. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
- ^ "People Deserving Recognition: Anayis". Iammedia. 3 August 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.