By Rubina Peroomian

The Armenian Genocide of 1915 is still yielding literary responses, long after the generation of writers who witnessed and survived the massacres and deportations has been superseded by those born in Diaspora. In this academic volume, Rubina Peroomian surveys the first generation of writers, those who saw their lives shattered to pieces and devoted their efforts to recreating the lost world in their literature. As Peroomian explains, by poems and novels published the aftermath of the massacres of 1864-96 and 1909, which are "the first echoes of the topical subgenre that we recognize today as Armenian literature." These massacres, Peroomian, resonated in the creations of writers including Zabel Yesayan, Vahen Tekeyan and Arpiar Arpiarian. Peroomian analyzes the anguished search for the literary cohesion of a nation torn by dispersion. The author holds a PhD. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA.