Literary critic, Dr., Professor, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, honored worker of science of the Armenian Academy of Sciences.
Terteryan was born on December 22, 1882, in the village of Shushikend, Nagorno-Karabakh. He studied at the parish school of his birthplace, then at the Armenian seminary in Shushi. In 1902, he entered the Gevorgyan Seminary, after graduating from which, since 1905, he devoted more than half a century to scientific and pedagogical activities. He taught history and theory of literature first at the Shushi Theological Seminary and then at the Yerevan Diocesan School.
Having mastered the principles of the psychological school, he carried out literary-critical activities, rooting in Armenian reality and being the first to apply various methodological criteria for evaluating poetry, prose, and publicism. During this period, his works “Vahan Teryan: The Singer of Dreams, Thirst, and Reconciliation” (1910), “Mikael Nalbandyan: The Publicizer of the Nation” (Alexandrapol, 1910), “Hovhannes Tumanyan: The Lyricist of the Native Edge” (Vagharshapat, 1911) were published.
In 1920, A. Terteryan was invited to the newly established Yerevan University as a lecturer. From 1929 until the end of his life, he was the head of the chair of Armenian literature he founded. At the university, he made great efforts to train high-quality literary scholars, develop programs in the history of Armenian literature, and place teaching on a scientific basis.
In 1943, A. Terteryan was awarded a Ph.D. without defending a dissertation. In the same year, he was confirmed as a founding member of the newly established Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR.
Among A. Terteryan’s important monographs are “Shirvanzade: "The Novelist of the Armenian Intellectual and Family" (1911), "Abovyan's Work" (Yerevan, 1941, 1947), "Armenian Classics" (Yerevan, 1944), "Shirvanzade's Encyclopedia of Positive Types" (Yerevan, 1959), "Valery Bryusov and Armenian Culture" (Yerevan, 1944), "Perch Proshyan" (Yerevan, 1955), etc.
In 1940, A. Terteryan was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the Armenian SSR.
Terteryan died on October 6, 1953, in Yerevan.
