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Kebranian to Explore Writer Zabel Yessayan and Post-Genocide Literature
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/11/14/kebranian-to-explore-writer-zabel-yessayan-and-post-genocide-literature/
By Contributor // November 14, 2013 in New England
BOSTON, Mass. - Intellectuals who survived the Armenian Genocide
struggled to come to grips with the enormity of their nation's loss
and find a way to reflect this predicament in their creative work. The
writer Zabel Yessayan experimented with several different approaches
in her post-genocide writing.
Prof. Nanor Kebranian
A well-recognized author, Yessayan had been the only woman on the
Turkish government's list of intellectuals to be arrested and sent to
exile and death on April 24, 1915, but she managed to evade the police
and escape abroad. The 1920's found her living in Paris and publishing
various fiction and non-fiction books and articles.
In a talk at the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) on Sun., Nov. 17,
Columbia University Professor Nanor Kebranian will examine the topic
`The Survival of Empathy: Zabel Yessayan and Post-Genocide Armenian
Literature.'
Kebranian cites words of journalist Hrant Dink that `echo the wisdom
of numerous Armenian intellectuals who survived the Young Turk's
genocidal campaign during the First World War' and `signal a veritable
crisis of empathy understood in its psychoanalytic sense.' Yessayan
recognized `both the perils and promises of Armenian-Turkish empathy,
of positioning oneself as the other,' Kebranian points out. Her talk
will explore the implications of this recognition as evidenced in some
of Yessayan's post-war writing, especially in terms of survival.
Nanor Kebranian is assistant professor at Columbia University in the
department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies. She
received her doctorate from the University of Oxford with generous
graduate fellowships from both the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and the
Clarendon Fund (Oxford). Her specializations encompass, but are not
limited to, late Ottoman social, political, and cultural history, and
literary studies. Current projects include a book monograph on late
Ottoman prison narratives and a study of `diaspora' as an
anti-communal ethic.
The program is sponsored by the Armenian International Women's
Association (AIWA) as part of a current project that focuses on
translating into English the works of pioneering Armenian women
writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yessayan is a major
figure of the period, and AIWA plans to release two volumes of
translations into English by the end of the year: one, the complete
edition of Yessayan's memoir of her childhood and early education in
Istanbul, The Gardens of Silihdar; and the other, Yessayan's
multi-layered novel My Soul in Exile, along with other short works.
Co-sponsors of Kebranian's talk are the National Association for
Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) and the Armenian Cultural
Foundation.
The event is free and open to the public, and begins at 2 p.m. at the
ACF, 441 Mystic St., Arlington, Mass. A discussion period and
reception will follow the program. For more information, contact AIWA
by calling (617) 026-0171, e-mailing [email protected], or visiting
www.aiwainternational.org.
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/11/14/kebranian-to-explore-writer-zabel-yessayan-and-post-genocide-literature/
By Contributor // November 14, 2013 in New England
BOSTON, Mass. - Intellectuals who survived the Armenian Genocide
struggled to come to grips with the enormity of their nation's loss
and find a way to reflect this predicament in their creative work. The
writer Zabel Yessayan experimented with several different approaches
in her post-genocide writing.
Prof. Nanor Kebranian
A well-recognized author, Yessayan had been the only woman on the
Turkish government's list of intellectuals to be arrested and sent to
exile and death on April 24, 1915, but she managed to evade the police
and escape abroad. The 1920's found her living in Paris and publishing
various fiction and non-fiction books and articles.
In a talk at the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) on Sun., Nov. 17,
Columbia University Professor Nanor Kebranian will examine the topic
`The Survival of Empathy: Zabel Yessayan and Post-Genocide Armenian
Literature.'
Kebranian cites words of journalist Hrant Dink that `echo the wisdom
of numerous Armenian intellectuals who survived the Young Turk's
genocidal campaign during the First World War' and `signal a veritable
crisis of empathy understood in its psychoanalytic sense.' Yessayan
recognized `both the perils and promises of Armenian-Turkish empathy,
of positioning oneself as the other,' Kebranian points out. Her talk
will explore the implications of this recognition as evidenced in some
of Yessayan's post-war writing, especially in terms of survival.
Nanor Kebranian is assistant professor at Columbia University in the
department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies. She
received her doctorate from the University of Oxford with generous
graduate fellowships from both the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and the
Clarendon Fund (Oxford). Her specializations encompass, but are not
limited to, late Ottoman social, political, and cultural history, and
literary studies. Current projects include a book monograph on late
Ottoman prison narratives and a study of `diaspora' as an
anti-communal ethic.
The program is sponsored by the Armenian International Women's
Association (AIWA) as part of a current project that focuses on
translating into English the works of pioneering Armenian women
writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yessayan is a major
figure of the period, and AIWA plans to release two volumes of
translations into English by the end of the year: one, the complete
edition of Yessayan's memoir of her childhood and early education in
Istanbul, The Gardens of Silihdar; and the other, Yessayan's
multi-layered novel My Soul in Exile, along with other short works.
Co-sponsors of Kebranian's talk are the National Association for
Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) and the Armenian Cultural
Foundation.
The event is free and open to the public, and begins at 2 p.m. at the
ACF, 441 Mystic St., Arlington, Mass. A discussion period and
reception will follow the program. For more information, contact AIWA
by calling (617) 026-0171, e-mailing [email protected], or visiting
www.aiwainternational.org.