The Arts of Memory. the Remembrance of the Armenians in Turkey
Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/39674 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Carikci, A. Title: The arts of memory : the remembrance of the Armenians in Turkey Issue Date: 2016-05-18 Chapter 1 Exploring Postmemory in Markar Esayan’s Novel Karşılaşma The transmission of traumatic memories to second generations, who have not witnessed the ordeals that their parents went through, has been a central topic in memory studies. This phenomenon concerns the second generations and how they appropriate their parent’s stories that preceded their births. To further explore the particular relationship of the second generations to their parental past, various scholars such as Ellen Fine, Ernst van Alphen, Gabriele Schwab, Celia Lury, Alison Landsberg, Nadine Fresco, Henri Raczymow, Froma Zeitlin, James Young and Marianne Hirsch have examined this subject. Their works have been motivated by the question whether the traumatic recollections of the second generations should be viewed as memory. This relationship has variously been described as an “absent memory” (Ellen Fine), “haunting legacy” (Gabriele Schwab), “inherited memory”, “belated memory” or “prosthetic memory” (Celia Lury, Alison Landsberg), “mémoire des cendres” (Nadine Fresco), “mémoire trouée” (Henri Raczymow), “vicarious witnessing” (Froma Zeitlin), “received history” (James Young) and “postmemory” (Marianne Hirsch).23 The concept of postmemory, developed by Marianne Hirsch, is based on the readings of autobiographical works written by post-Holocaust second generation authors. Hirsch invites us to rethink our relation to literature to explore the effect of traumatic experiences on the second generations. The concept of postmemory provides a new lens to scrutinize the intergenerational memory after the Holocaust.
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