ABSTRACT
The Catastrophe of the Genocide has been marked in Armenian literature by the absence of the ability to articulate the experience of the Genocide in a way that was productive. The writers have bridged the chasm from catastrophe to creativity by unleashing their creative literary efforts and by the act of writing. A generation of writers has begun to explore the consequences and impact of the Genocide on Armenians living in America. The works of three representative authors is the subject of this preliminary study: Michael Arlen's Passage to Ararat, Michael Krekorian's "Avedis," and David Kherdian's Asking the River. Each author presents a different perspective on the impact of the Genocide on his person and on the community in general and each has his own distinctive approach. During the nine decades since the Armenian Genocide of 1915 a vast corpus of Armenian-American literature has developed, some of which deals with the varied responses to the Catastrophe.
