Agenda

Prof. Alvard Jivanyan, Yerevan State University
Introduction by Prof. Sona Haroutyunian (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

November 24th 2025, 12.15–13.45
Palazzo Ca’ Cappello, Aula B
ON ARMENIAN FOLK TALES, TELLERS AND TRANSLATORS
The Armenian folk tale, famous collectors, old wives’ tales: women as tellers, bilingual storytellers, storytelling trance, the Armenian folk tale translated.

November 27th 2025, 12.15–13.45
Palazzo Ca’ Cappello, Aula B
BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: ‘ORIENTALISM’ IN ARMENIAN FAIRY TALES
Oriental motifs and mythical creatures in Armenian folk tales, Armenian characters in European and Oriental tales.

December 1st 2025, 12.15–13.45
Palazzo Ca’ Cappello, Aula B
FROM WITCHES TO WEREWOLVES: THE ARMENIAN SUPERNATURAL PERSONNEL
Eznik of Kolb, denying pagan beliefs; the monk of San Lazzaro as the keeper of Armenian fairylore; who was the Armenian Little Red Riding Hood afraid of?

December 15th 2025, 15.45–17.15
Palazzo Ca’ Cappello, Aula D
HOVHANNES TOUMANIAN: THE POET TRANSLATED AND THE POET AS TRANSLATOR
The spark of American interest in Armenia: Alice Stone Blackwell; when Grimms’ Märchen and Leander’s Reveries unfold in Armenian.

Professor Alvard Jivanyan teaches stylistics, comparative folklore, and children’s literature at Yerevan State University, Armenia. She is also the Head of the Fairy Tale Studies Centre at the Toumanian Museum in Yerevan, and the editor of Voske Divan: A Journal of Fairy Tale Studies. She has lectured extensively on fairy tales and fantasy fiction, published numerous articles on these subjects, and translated several works of children’s literature into Armenian, including the six Harry Potter books.

In 2017, she was a visiting professor at Ca’ Foscari University within the Erasmus+ ICM exchange programme with Armenia, and this semester she is hosted by the Department of Asian and North African Studies as a visiting scholar.

The seminars are held as part of the courses “Armenian Language” (ref. Sona Haroutyunian).