ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explore the roles of memory and identity in the diasporic construct. Undoubtedly, on an individual level, memory as part of the self-refl ective act has a role to play in identity construction. Moreover, as is evident from research on the diasporic subject, memory has a central role in providing cohesiveness to the diasporic collective and in shaping its distinct identity (Braziel & Mannur, 2003; Butler, 2001; Safran, 1991; Sökefeld & Schwalgin, 2000; Tölölyan, 1996). In the Armenian case, with the powerful imprint and lasting legacy of genocide,1 the centrality of memory in identity construction becomes even more compelling. Seen from an intergenerational lens, displacement, loss, and trauma become inextricably linked with postmemory, which is when the memories and narratives of a previous generation wrought by unfathomable and unspeakable traumatic events come to dominate the narratives of succeeding generations (Hirsch, 1997, p. 22). In speaking about exile, postmemory, and the impossibility of mourning, Hirsch (1997) writes:
In perpetual exile, this/my generation’s practice of mourning is as determinative as it is interminable and ultimately impossible. The aesthetics of postmemory, I suggest, is a diasporic aesthetics of temporal and spatial exile that needs simultaneously to (re)build and to mourn. (p. 245)
The temporal and spatial exile Hirsch speaks of reminds me of the mental and emotional exile I feel characterizes the diasporic descendants of the Armenian genocide survivors, myself among them. The diaspora(s) are our home, yet there is a legacy and memory of an exile we carry in ourselves. The burden of the postmemory is such that the only way to understand and come to terms with it is to fi nd ways to heal. In order to heal, it is important to pull back the layers and engage in self-refl exivity. Writing on the same theme, Shirinian (2004) asserts that memory in its exilic mode is bound to be fragmented since “our relationship to our past is one of disconnections”
(p. 38). Spatially, then, the diasporic construct also becomes a location to “discover and retrieve . . . memories” (Shirinian, p. 35).
