Depicting the Past and its Diversity in the Age of Nationalisms: The Armenian Memory Books (houshamadyan)

Abstract

To remember a native village or town, collect written accounts, photos, and maps, and raise funds to publish a book that displayed all of this material, this was the decades-long dream of many who made up the first generation of Armenian exiles. It was in this general environment, starting in the 1920s, that books— houshamadyans—began to appear in succession in various Armenian diasporan communities. This article analyzes the post-genocide ideological environment where most of the houshamadyans were written and published. It examines the contents of this genre of book in detail and shows how the houshamadyans, which in their essence are a depiction of a past life characterized by diversity, adapt themselves to diasporic nationalist environments.