Transnational Culture in the Iranian Armenian Diaspora

Claudia Yaghoobi author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Edinburgh University Press

Published:28th Feb '25

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Transnational Culture in the Iranian Armenian Diaspora cover

Transnational Culture studies the ways that diasporic Iranian Armenian authors and artists negotiate their identities as minoritized population within a liminal space that includes religious, ethnic, national, racial, cultural, gender, and sexual factors. Yaghoobi argues that this liminal state of fluidity helps them to develop a resilience towards ambiguity and handling ambivalence in dealing with various cultures as well as resisting dualistic thinking which in turn allows them to move beyond national boundaries to transnationalism, yet simultaneously display the collective Armenian identity characterized by flexibility, adaptability, and continuity as a result of both multiple uprooting and a Genocide that continues to this day. They serve as a bridge between the homeland and the host nation, occupying what the author theorizes as verants’ughi – the transformational passageway, which requires them to not only risk being in a transitory space and give up the safe space of home and the power that comes with it, but also through doing so, they create transformative works of literature and art.

This book blends scholarly and personal history with literature, film and art, thereby illustrating how questions of identity are navigated by Iranian Armenians, both in Iran and in exile. It is a fresh and nuanced study that approaches the subjects of minorities, race and migration through a non-western lens. -- James Barry, Deakin University
Transnational Culture in the Iranian Armenian Diaspora breaks new ground in the study of minorities in general and specifically in the context of diaspora communities. Claudia Yaghoobi brilliantly analyses the construction of a triangular identity comprised of Iran, Armenia and the United States as the geographical identifiers. -- Lior Sternfeld, Pennsylvania State University
This book offers a fascinating focus on an entirely understudied community that appears predominantly silenced within socio-political discourses related to diasporic Armenian communities. Of particular interest are Yaghoobi’s examinations of artistic and creative contributions by Iranian Armenians and the ways in which their artistic expressions were shaped by the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Iran-Iraq war. -- Vera Eccarius-KellyVera Eccarius-Kelly, Siena College
Transnational Culture in the Iranian Armenian Diaspora [is] a groundbreaking contribution to the study of Iranian Armenian history and culture through which Yaghoobi challenges Eurocentric understandings of the Middle East as monolithic or “less multicultural” than the US. -- Marzia Milazzo * A Review of International English Literature *
In this insightful book, Claudia Yaghoobi sheds light on the multi-sited, hybrid, dynamically reconstructed identities of Iranian Armenians in Iran and the U.S. through their cultural productions as revival practices and explores how the same community identifies in different geographies and social contexts, which is critical for researchers interested in migration and diaspora studies and provides an opportunity for comparative analyses. -- Nazli Muge Onder, Atatürk University * Ethnic and Racial Studies *

ISBN: 9781399512381

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

288 pages