LEVON SHANT (Nahashpetian, later Seghbosyan after his father Seghbos) was born on April 6, 1869 in Constantinople. An Armenian writer, pedagogue and public figure. He studied at Scutari school in Constantinople and at Gevorgian seminary at Holy Etchmiadzin (1884-91), then at the Universities of Leipzig, Jena, Munich (1892-1899). From 1899 L. Shant taught for more than a decade at the Gayanian Girls School in Tiflis and the Diocesan School of Yerevan. He was a member of the literary circle "Vernatun". Together with H. Tumanyan and S. Lisitsyan, he compiled and published the textbook of the Armenian language Lusaber. From 1915 he lived in Europe and in 1919 he came back to the Caucasus. He was elected a deputy of RA National Assembly Republic (Armenian Revolutionary Federation). In the summer of 1920, Shant headed the official delegation sent to Moscow for negotiations with the Soviet Union. From 1921 he lived in different countries (Iran, France, Egypt) and in 1929, he settled in Beirut.

In 1890 Shant published the poem The Mountain Girl. In the novels Dreamlike days (1894),  The Outsiders (1895), The return (1897), The actress (1898) he describes the conflict of public duty and personal aspirations. The importance of Shant's works in Armenian literature and the history of the Armenian culture is primarily associated with his dramaturgy. 

In his dramas The Egoist (1904), For Someone Else (1905-06), On the Road (1909) the author touches upon the conflict of the individual and society, as well as national liberation problems. In Ancient gods (1909, published in 1912), The Emperor (1916), The Princess of the Fallen Castle (1921) Shant gave an accurate picture of the historical environment, put forward national and socio-psychological problems. 

Ancient gods and The Emperor are the most vivid manifestations of symbolism in Armenian literature and the history of the theater. In the drama "Ancient gods " Shant raised questions of eternal conflict between secular and spiritual, freedom of action and feelings of a personality, as well as the problem of the revival of national life. In 1945 he published his psychological novel Thirsty Souls. Levon Shant compiled textbooks of the Armenian language, wrote literary, philological, pedagogical, scientific-psychological, historiographical works. He translated works of M. Lermontov, E. Voynich H. Ibsen.

Levon Shant died on November 29, 1951 in Beirut.

Source - "Who is Who. The Armenians" Encyclopedia, Volume I, chief-editor Hovh. Ayvazyan, Yerevan, 2007.

 

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