[Bilimsel Haber] PUBL.- Harutyun Marutyan, _ Iconography of Armenian Identity_

[Gonul Pultar]

PUBL.- Harutyun Marutyan: Iconography of Armenian Identity

Posted by: Harutyun Marutyan <hmarut at yahoo.com>




Harutyun Marutyan. Iconography of Armenian Identity. Volume 1: The
Memory of Genocide and the Karabagh Movement.
Yerevan: "Gitutyun" Publishing House of the National Academy of
Sciences, Republic of Armenia. 2009.
xvi, 416 pp., illustrated (1 map, 255 color & monochrome photos),
Extensive Notes, Bibliography, Index.
Hardcover with dust-jacket, 290x220mm.
(Anthropology of Memory. 2)
Also available in Armenian edition.

Price - $95 (75 euro). (The price includes shipping & handling of $20.
Ships from Yerevan, Armenia within 2 business days of payment.
Optional traceable shipping may take 3 to 6 weeks. To purchase, please
contact hmarut at yahoo.com).

Summary

The main objective of this monograph are to examine the role and place
of the memory of the Armenian Genocide, the massacres perceived as
genocide and mass expulsions in order to assess the impact of the
memory of these historical events on the formation of Armenian
national identity, mobilizing potential of memory and its influence on
past and present relations. As a main source of research
twentieth-century historical and ethnographic data are used, and in
particular, the popular iconography (posters and banners) in all its
thematic diversity.

Specific issues discussed in the volume include:

  * the role of the 1915 Genocide in the collective and historical
    memory of Armenians;
  * the ways of how "dormant" memory is activated;
  * the expression of collective memory within popular belief systems
    and cultural characteristics;
  * popular correlations between the Genocide and massacres in Sumgait
    (February 1988);
  * the role and significance of literary aspects of iconography in the
    formation of national identity;
  * the expression of collective and historical memory through data and
    toponyms;
  * the role of collective and historical memory in emotional
    outpouring and lament;
  * popular perceptions of the perpetration of the Sumgait massacres
    and the exposure and punishment of those
    responsible;
  * the way of how collective and historical memory is expressed and
    transmitted;
  * the social limitations of memory, the process of re-evaluation of
    the past and the present and its role in
    changing identity;
  * the relationship between the broadening of the notion of "genocide"
    and national identity;
  * complexity of the popular perceptions on the prevention of genocide etc.

The book explores how in the years of the Karabagh Movement
(1988-1990, arguably the first of East European revolutionary
movements) the theme of genocide, transgressing the limits of pain and
sorrow typical of its initial stage, drove people to activity that
resulted in the formation of a new parliament, which was expected to
choose the course of radical change. Thus, the factor of genocide had
become the engine that provided opportunity for the gradual,
step-by-step, changes of old perceptions and stereotypes and the
formation of a new identity. The book shows how, in fact, it was the
genocide memory that became the means for the Karabagh Movement to
succeed and ultimately allowed for democratic reforms.

Biographical note

Dr. Harutyun Marutyan is a Leading Research Fellow at the Department
of Contemporary Anthropological Studies in the Institute of
Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.
He was born in 1956, studied in Yerevan State University and the
Institute of Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow
(PhD, 1984). He received his Doctor of Sciences (History) in 2007 at
the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Yerevan. He has been
the recipient of IREX/RSEP (1998), Fulbright (2003-2004) and USHMMCAHS
(2009-2010) fellowships. He is the author of three monographs and more
than 100 scholarly articles. He also has contributed to a number of
collective monographs.


Harutyun Marutyan
Doctor of Sciences (History),
Social/Cultural Anthropologist,
IREX/RSEP, Fulbright and
USHMM-CAHS Alumni,
Leading Researcher of Institute of
Archaeology and Ethnography, National
Academy of Sciences of Armenia,
15 Charents St., Yerevan, 0025, Armenia
Tel.: +374 10 55 67 97, +374 10 55 27 00
Mobile: +374 91 65 86 76
Email addresses: hmarut at yahoo.com, hmarut at web.am




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