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Abstract
This dissertation analyzes Armenian transnational and Turkish national responses to the Armenian genocide and its aftermath. These are mainly literary responses that have been written in the last hundred years, through which I scrutinize the possibilities of conversation between Armenians and Turks. With this ideal in mind, I ask if the literary area of expression provides the selected Armenian and Turkish writers with a space in which to bear witness to the past and the present and to empathize with the historical Other. Based on this question, I inquire whether literary witnessing is useful or even possible and whether literature can generate affective empathy between two opposing positions. Finally, if literature generates affective empathy, what are its conditions and the most common empathy blocks for Armenians and Turks? To address these questions, I establish a connection between witnessing and empathy according to which a witness is a precondition of empathy, and empathy is the first step of bearing witness. I suggest that literature is a valuable medium for testifying and empathizing with the Other. In this study, I do not question the validity of the genocide but instead examine its various representations; therefore, understanding the agencies and positionalities of the selected writers becomes necessary to identify their subjective interpretations of the past and the present. I observe that literature allows individuals to produce affective responses: forgiveness for the survivor and their descendants, and recognition for the perpetrator and their descendants. Consequently, I consider empathy and literature in tandem as the first step of dialogue between Armenians and Turks. Overall, this research demonstrates that everyday life and literature regularly converse with and shape each other; therefore, the analyzed literary responses are not linear but multidirectional and in constant transformation.