Srpouhi Dussap

Srpouhi Dussap (Armenian: Սրբուհի Տիւսաբ [The traditional spelling of her name. In the reformed orthography her name would be rendered Սրբուհի Տյուսաբ.] ) (1840-1901) was an Armenian feminist writer and the first female Armenian novelist.

Biography

Dussap was born in Constantinople to a prosperous upper-class Armenian Catholic family. At the time, wealthy families regularly imitated the trends and customs of Western European, primarily French society. The young Dussap, being educated in Western European institutions, showed little interest in the Armenian language. However, after being tutored by revered Armenian poet Mkrtich Beshiktashlian, Dussap began to show a deep affection for the language as well as her heritage. Her first creative writing attempts were written in classical Armenian.

Dussap was married to a French musician, Paul Dussap, with whom she ran a European style salon where the city's prominent intellectuals, liberals, writers and activists would gather to discuss social and political issues, literature and poetry. Dussap's oeuvre reflects nineteenth century European trends. She wrote mainly in the Romantic style, while her contemporaries embraced both Romanticism and Realism.

She was very much concerned about the situation of the female peasantry of the Ottoman Empire, claiming they suffered from ignorance and male oppression. She further professed that even in the more cultured and cosmopolitan Constantinople, women "were still deprived of their freedom and dominated by men." Dussap was certain that their society would not be able to advance and progress without the emancipation of women. For these liberal ideas, she faced resentment from some of prominent Armenian intellectuals, such as Krikor Zohrab, but was esteemed by the progressivists.

Notes

References

Translated from Armenian: Արդի հայ գրականութիւն [Modern Armenian Literature] , Beirut, pp. 134-138