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containing Saroyan’s unpublished plays in “An Armenian Trilogy”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.”
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