Arakel Minassian

Research Interests: Modern and contemporary Armenian literature; postcolonial studies; translation; creative writing in Western Armenian.

Languages: Armenian (Classical; Modern Eastern and Western); Russian; French

I'm interested in modern Armenian literary history, and which authors fit or are left out of specific literary histories. Lately, I've been working on the Istanbul-based Western Armenian author Zaven Biberian (1921-1984), who was an Armenian author living on in Turkey after the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Biberian represents the difficult conditions Armenians faced in Turkey after the genocide, but his work also cuts across national boundaries to speak to a wide range of marginalized communities in Turkey. As a result, he does not fit neatly within nationalist Armenian literary histories emerging elsewhere in the Armenian diaspora.