- Summary
- "A powerful examination of soulful journeys made to recover memory and recuperate stolen pasts in the face of unspeakable histories. Survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 took refuge across the globe. Traumatized by unspeakable brutalities, the idea of returning to their homeland was unthinkable. But decades later, some children and grandchildren have felt compelled to travel back, having heard stories of family wholeness in beloved homes and of cherished ancestral towns and villages once in Ottoman Armenia, today in the Republic of Turkey. Hoping to satisfy spiritual yearnings, this new generation called themselves pilgrims--and their journeys, pilgrimages. Carel Bertram joined scores of these pilgrims on over a dozen pilgrimages, and amassed accounts from hundreds more who made these journeys. In telling their stories, "A House in the Homeland" documents how pilgrims encountered the ancestral house, village, or town as both real and metaphorical centerpieces of family history. Bertram recounts the moving, restorative connections pilgrims made, and illuminates how the ancestral house, as a spiritual place, offers an opening to a wellspring of humanity in sites that might otherwise be defined solely by tragic loss. As an exploration of the powerful links between memory and place, house and homeland, rupture and continuity, these Armenian stories reflect the resilience of diaspora in the face of the savage reaches of trauma, separation, and exile in ways that each of us, whatever our history, can recognize"-- Provided by publisher.
- Series
- Worlding the Middle East
Worlding the Middle East.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Bertram, Carel, 1943- author.
- Published
- Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2022]
- Locale
- Turkey
- Contents
-
Introduction : where memory takes place
The family mansion
An erased village and an inhabited house
The house, its sacred geography, and the intrusion of the profrane
Music as the sacred memory of home
The house-place and memory-stories
The emergence of rituals
Relics : engaging the spirits
Communion : a unification of souls
Sacred and profane : a poetic encounter
Votives I : deferment
Votives II : restoration
Ex-votos : gratitude
Shrines : making visible the invisible
Blessings : at my father's house
Homeland music performs the village
Village music performs the homeland
Traveling through a trauma-scape
Traveling as wholeness
The last Armenians
Armenians "everywhere"
A homeland of mirrors
Conclusion : revealing the emotional weight of home.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-284) and index.
Introduction : where memory takes place -- The family mansion -- An erased village and an inhabited house -- The house, its sacred geography, and the intrusion of the profrane -- Music as the sacred memory of home -- The house-place and memory-stories -- The emergence of rituals -- Relics : engaging the spirits -- Communion : a unification of souls -- Sacred and profane : a poetic encounter -- Votives I : deferment -- Votives II : restoration -- Ex-votos : gratitude -- Shrines : making visible the invisible -- Blessings : at my father's house -- Homeland music performs the village -- Village music performs the homeland -- Traveling through a trauma-scape -- Traveling as wholeness -- The last Armenians -- Armenians "everywhere" -- A homeland of mirrors -- Conclusion : revealing the emotional weight of home.
