Armenian community to hold panel about Saroyan

Professors to discuss works of legendary author

By KIMBERLINA ROCHA

The life and literary works of Fresno’s own William Saroyan will be presented in the panel discussion, “William Saroyan and His World,” tonight at 7 p.m. in the Industrial Technology building, Room 101.

The event is part of the Armenian Studies program’s spring 2005 lecture series and is co-sponsored by the William Saroyan Society of Fresno. The panel discussion is a component of Armenian Studies 120T, a one-unit course based on the legendary writer.

Professor Dickran Kouymjian, who teaches the course, will moderate the panel discussion. Kouymjian knew Saroyan personally and he wrote two books containing Saroyan’s unpublished plays in “An Armenian Trilogy” and “Warsaw Visitor.”

“Saroyan was a major literary figure and most people want to know about him,” Kouymjian said. “He was the most famous literary figure to come out of the Central Valley.”

Saroyan was born in Fresno in 1908 to Armenian immigrant parents. His works included short stories, plays, novels and autobiographical memoirs. Some of the themes central to his writing were optimism and sentimentality.

Barlow Der Mugrdechian, professor of Armenian Studies, will speak on “Saroyan the Writer.”

“Most of his works are very positive, very optimistic,” Der Mugrdechian said. “Reading them gives you the same optimism.”

Saroyan’s first published book was a collection of short stories in “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze,” in 1934. Other notable works included “My Name is Aram” in 1940, and the plays “My Heart’s in the Highlands” in 1939 and “The Time of Your Life,” which won the Pulitzer Prize the same year.

Most of his short stories deal with Saroyan’s Armenian heritage and his life in the Central Valley. “The Human Comedy” takes place in Fresno. In 1934, it was made into a movie, which won an Academy Award for best original screenplay.

Saroyan made much of his fame and fortune in New York and Europe. The memories of his childhood in Fresno were used as raw material for many of his stories and plays, said Kouymjian, director of the Armenian Studies program.

“Saroyan opted to play in the big arena, on the universal stage,” Kouymjian said. “Because he took that risk, he became internationally famous.”

Later in life, Saroyan moved back to Fresno, where he died in 1981 at age 72. A year after his death, half of his ashes were buried in Fresno and the rest in his beloved Armenia.

The panel discussion will also feature Fresno author and historian Berge Bulbulian, who will speak on “Fresno in the Time of Saroyan,” and writer Ed Hagopian, who was a close friend of the author, will speak on “Reminiscences and Recollections.”

“This will be a very interesting panel discussion,” Der Mugrdechian said. “Fresno is known throughout the world as the birthplace of Saroyan. Part of what this town is known for is the life of this man.”