INTERVIEW WITH DR. RUBINA PEROOMIAN: THE POWER OF THE PEN
June 18, 2012
Haytoug: Armenians have long took pride in education and having an
alphabet that is now over 1,600 years old. Given this legacy, how big
of a role would you say the written word and literature has actually
had on shaping the destiny and identity of the Armenian people?
Rubina Peroomian: Yes, we are proud of our culture, our heritage and
our 1600-year-old alphabet. We are proud of the rich literary output
that made the fifth century the Golden Age and the tenth and eleventh
centuries the Silver Age of Armenian literature.
Yes, education has always been one of the key values upheld in
Armenian families. But this consciousness was germinated, expounded and
disseminated by the nineteenth-century Armenian Renaissance movement
which was launched to enlighten and educate the Armenian masses,
disseminate religious and cultural values, and propagate ideas of
modernity. Before then, these values were esteemed and perpetuated by
a relatively small class of men and women–which included the clergy,
the ruling class, the nobility and the intellectuals–while the masses
lived in ignorance and poverty under the yoke of foreign domination,
deprived of basic human rights.
What shaped the destiny and the identity of the Armenian people,
in other words, what sustained their survival throughout their
turbulent history, was their devotion to Christianity in the midst of
the encroaching Muslim world and a subconscious effort to maintain
and perpetuate their ethnic origin, traditions and language. An
influential factor here may have been the spoken word and not the
written word or literature.
H: It is often said that the cultural renaissance of the Zartonk
(Awakening) period of the 19th century gave birth to the Armenian
revolutionary movement. In what ways exactly did writers like Mikael
Nalbandyan, Khatchadour Abovian, Raffi and others spur Armenians
to stand up for their liberation? Weren’t the material conditions
experienced by Armenians in the Ottoman Empire alone enough to make
them want to resist their oppression?
[raffi.png] R.P.: The political awakening was the final phase of
the nineteenth-century Armenian Renaissance which began with an
Enlightenment movement, the establishment of a network of modern
schools, the periodical press, and the modernization of the language
with the replacement of Grabar (which was unintelligible to the masses)
by two literary languages closer to the dominant vernaculars.
Through these vehicles the Armenian intelligentsia were able
to propagate the Renaissance ideology which was, in essence,
the aspiration to live the life that all humankind deserved to
live. And the model, or the source of inspiration, was not so much the
European example but the glory of the Armenian past, drenched with
an insatiable love of liberty and justice and bolstered by a rich
culture that Armenians can be proud of. The Armenian masses needed
to become conscious of their own deplorable situation before they
were able to aspire to a better future. It was during this period
that the written word and the literature created by the Renaissance
writers, some of whom you mentioned, assumed the role of reshaping the
Armenian identity which had been buried in obscurity and the darkness
of centuries of subjugation. This literature cultivated the Armenians’
will to stand up and fight for their rights and take their destiny
into their own hands. Call it tendentious or committed literature
if you will, let some literary critics campaign against it, but the
literature of the Zartonk period did the job. This literature can be
considered the realization of the theory of “reflect and control,”
to use Melvin J. Vincent’s expression. It presented Armenian life as
it was in its ugliest aspects, and at the same time it propagated
and cultivated what was desirable, what was worth fighting for, in
the reader’s mind. In other words, the Renaissance artists not only
held up a mirror to reflect life as it was, they presented a model
of what it should be.
These models created characters, heroes of national dimensions who
acquired flesh and blood in the forthcoming national struggle for
liberation.
The revolutionary movement was a byproduct of the Renaissance, as
was the formation of the Armenian political parties (1885-90). It
was not widespread, however. In fact, it was launched by a few who
believed in the importance of self-defense as a means toward national
liberation, and its followers were the few with arms-in-hand who were
weary of the repression, the persecution, the Turkish and Kurdish
assaults, the looting, rape and kidnapping that were rampant in the
Ottoman Empire. It took years of struggle to move the masses–who were
submerged in darkness and had adapted to their lot–to sensitize them
to their own predicament and influence them to see the possibility
of changing the status quo.
H: In many of the novels, poems, songs, and literature of the
Zartonk period, we find a common emphasis on the theme of youth and
the importance of passing on values of freedom and justice to the
younger generation. Why was there such a strong emphasis on the youth
by writers back then?
R.P.: The Renaissance movement began with the enlightenment campaign
in a newly established network of schools, that is, the education of
the youth. If the Armenian Zartonk ideology called for a change in
the destiny of the nation and for the destitute masses to once again
become a nation with goals and aspirations, the young generation
had to be prepared to take on the commitment and lead the way. The
significance of the power of youth activism can be seen throughout the
history of mankind. “Youth are the future”– the statement is old and
worn but it is true. An example close to our life in America, known
to all, is that of the Mexican American Youth Movement of the 1960s
and the changes brought about by the relentless activism of Chicano
youth. In the Armenian reality of the early nineteenth century, the
imaginary characters that Renaissance writers created and hoped to
see materialize in real life were young individuals with a profound
consciousness of the plight of the nation and an unwavering commitment
to bringing change. And we have seen the burgeoning of these young
heroes thrusting forward even when their lives were at stake.
H: You’ve written a great deal about literary responses in the
aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. What can such literature convey
to us about the Genocide that historical facts or oral history cannot?
R.P.: Your question leads to the essence of my work as a genocide
scholar whose field of research is artistic literature with the
Genocide at its core. For many long years now, I have studied the
literature of atrocity–to use Lawrence Langer’s terminology– in
order to understand the human dimension of this colossal crime which
today is called the Armenian Genocide. My writings expose the last
cries of the victims of the great injustice that has still not been
redressed. They speak of the survivors’ perceptions of the calamity and
how their tragic experience has indelibly impacted their psyches and
become a debilitating influence in their lives; how harrowing images
of their past experience, triggered by visual, aural, olfactory or
other associations, revisit them in their waking hours, and return
in their sleep when the unconscious overrides conscious control to
push dormant images to the surface.
In my reading and explication of these artistic creations–memoirs,
auto-biographical novels and other genres of genocide literature–I
have tried to illuminate a dark corner of the horrendous landscape
of the Armenian Genocide which will never be completely known,
and the boundless sea of personal and collective pain and suffering
that will never be fully recognized. Although I provide historical
background to the places and events under discussion in my work,
I never attempt to prove the veracity of the Genocide. It is there
as the point of departure, as the source of the breach in Armenian
life and all the paradigms of responses to historical catastrophes,
and the source of the new reality which is life in the diaspora.
Literary responses to the collective catastrophe reflect the
reality perceived by the writers. These writings are the truth as it
happened. The reader relates to that truth and absorbs it like no other
document or fact sheet. [Mid.png] Allow me to quote a passage from my
most recent book which discusses the same issue and demonstrates the
intrinsic value of Genocide fiction and symbolic poetry “as elucidators
of universal truths that lie at the roots of historical facts, putting
inconceivable realities into human perspective… assisting readers
to grasp the meaning of a historical event.”
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, a Jewish Holocaust scholar, once declared that
“The Holocaust has already engendered more historical research than any
single event in Jewish history, but I have no doubt whatsoever that
its image is being shaped, not at the historian’s avail, but in the
novelist’s crucible.” Indeed, it is the artist’s creative power that
can capture the unthinkable horrors of genocide and bring them within
the scope of the reader’s imagination. That is the power of the pen.
H: Over recent years, there has been a small but growing number of
Turks who have begun questioning the denialist narrative of Turkey
regarding the Genocide. A significant proportion of these individuals
have been writers, poets, novelists, and literary figures such as Orhan
Pamuk and Elif Shafak. What role do you feel literature is playing
in the development of a critical voice in Turkey on the Genocide?
R.P.: There is certainly an ongoing metamorphosis at the intellectual
level in Turkey, a change in perceptions of the Turkish past, to the
extent of questioning the official Turkish narrative. And this is not
so much a matter of confronting the denial of the Armenian Genocide,
but of challenging the Republican narrative based on the idealization
of the founders of the Republic– many of whom were important political
figures during the late Ottoman period and, thus, perpetrators of the
Armenian massacres–and of questioning the denial of the multiethnic,
multireligious and multilingual makeup of Turkey. These intellectuals
are in quest of their own true identity.
They are struggling for the democratization of the republic and for
the lifting of censorship on intellectual endeavors. Their influence on
public opinion outside Istanbul is minimal, I would say, but change is
in the making. It is undeniable. And the effect of artistic literature
such as Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, Elif Shafak’s The Bastard of Istanbul,
Fethiye Cetin’s My Grandmother, Kemal Yalcın’s You Rejoice my Heart,
Mehmet Uzun’s Pomegranate Flowers, and other works are gradually being
felt. Of course, it is also undeniable that these artistic creations
or memoirs are supported and reinforced by historical findings, by
the books, exposés and discourses of historians, scholars and human
rights activists such as Taner Akcam, Ayse Gul Altınay, Fatma Muge
Göcek, Osman Köker, Hulya Adak, Ayse Gunaysu and others.
H: What are your thoughts on the rapid spread of modern technologies
and the popular phenomena of social media today? Can these platforms
serve as useful tools for a modern, 21st century Zartonk and revival
of Armenian literature?
R.P.: The spread of modern technology and the popularity of social
media can be useful and harmful at the same time. The positive impact
of this medium, so familiar to the young generation, is undeniable
if used with a controlled effort, such as initiating monitored
discussions, disseminating ideas, promoting understanding and support
for the Armenian Cause and literature. It is possible today to send
out information, organize fan clubs and groups, or rally support for
or against an Armenian related piece of news in a matter of hours
through Facebook and the like.
However, the downside of social media is that it does not lend
itself to serious literature and is mostly a space for quick notes,
observations, and so on. As for casual online discussions, they
can go out of control and boil down to useless chat. A revival in
literature in Armenian? I doubt this. A unified easily accessible
medium in cyberspace in Armenian is yet to be developed.
H: Do you have any upcoming projects or research you can tell our
readers about?
R.P.: Yes, of course, and thank you for this question. My third book
on Armenian Genocide literature was published in March this year, and
I am already working on the next volume to complete my interpretation
of the perceptions of the Genocide by Diasporan Armenian survivor
writers of the first, second and third generations.
Meanwhile, I have been working on the project of teaching the Armenian
Genocide to Armenian students in K-12, initiated years ago by the Board
of Regents of Prelacy Armenian Schools. I have perfected the project,
adding missing materials and lesson plans for each age group, and I
introduced it at the biennial educational conference sponsored by the
Ministry of Sciences and Education of the Republic of Armenia. Because
of the enthusiastic reception of the project by Armenian teachers
from all over the world, the Ministry of Education agreed to adopt
the project, prepare an online version of it and offer it for use
by all interested parties, free of charge. It is now posted on the
Ministry’s website, at , to be exact.
In participating in the 2012 conference this summer, my goal will
be to publicize the project and work for its worldwide distribution
and dissemination so that every Armenian student, wherever he or she
may be, will have the chance to learn about this important turning
point in the history of the Armenian people, through age-appropriate
materials, tools and methodologies.
I want to see Armenian youth armed with the knowledge of history and
of Armenian national rights, logically, without emotional impulse. I
want to see Armenian youth properly educated to become committed
soldiers of Armenian national aspirations.
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