PRESS RELEASE
Ararat-Eskijian Museum
15105 Mission Hills Rd
Mission Hills CA, 91345
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 818-838-4862
RUBINA PEROOMIAN TO SPEAK AT ARARAT-ESKIJIAN
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN LITERATURE
Dr. Rubina Peroomian will give a lecture entitled “The Armenian Genocide in
Literature: Perceptions of Those Who Lived Through the Years of Calamity” on
Sunday, January 13, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. at the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, Hasmik
Mgrdichian Gallery, 15105 Mission Hills Road, Mission Hills, CA. The
lecture, based on Dr. Peroomian’s most recent book, is sponsored by the
Ararat-Eskijian Museum and the National Association for Armenian Studies and
Research (NAASR). There will be a reception and book signing to follow the
lecture.
The Armenian Genocide that took place almost a century ago is now sliding
into the past, but justice has not been rendered. Obsession with the past
fueled by denial of the crime, the deniers’ distortion of history, and the
image of a lost homeland that kindles a sense of deprivation are hallmarks
of the literature produced in the Armenian Diaspora.
Dr. Rubina Peroomian’s present volume begins with the response of the
first-generation writers who survived, complementing her work Literary
Responses to Catastrophe (1993) and demonstrating more emphatically the
depth of the initial psychological shock of the traumatic experience as well
as the soul-consuming struggle in dispersion. It then proceeds to discuss
the literary response of the orphan generation, anapati serund, in its
diversity and complexity and as a stark departure from the worldviews and
literary traditions of the past with, nevertheless, the Genocide at its
core. The final chapter is devoted to the memoirs of the aging survivors,
ordinary men and women who, without a claim to artistry but with an urge to
record their harrowing past experiences for posterity, have put their
personal stories in writing.
Dr. Rubina Peroomian holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
from UCLA. She has taught Armenian studies courses, lectured widely,
participated in international symposia, authored books, and contributed
chapters to scholarly volumes.
For more information contact the Ararat-Eskijian Museum at 818-838-4862 or
[email protected] or NAASR at 617-489-1610 or [email protected].
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December 27, 2012