Abstract
The challenges raised by genocides and by the multiple forms of testimony which narrate, translate, process, represent, and bring them, so to speak, into the present, are considerable.2 Given these difficulties, a return to the writings of Walter Benjamin proves useful insofar as these contain tools vital for the construction of a nonlinear thought-process, one which is awake and aware of its own fragmented, de-systematized reflection.3 In this article we set out to establish a dialogue between two of his most important works — “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” (1939) (Benjamin, 1973/1939: 211–244) and “Theses on the philosophy of history” (1940) (Benjamin, 1973/1940: 245–255) — by considering a truly extraordinary film. Although barely known, if not entirely forgotten, this film nevertheless carries within it the seeds — avant la lettre — of the Benjaminian concept of a “cinematic history,” of the cinema as a potential mode of “historical awakening”.4 A film which can be seen as both a simulacrum and a revelation.
I wish to express my warm thanks to Eduardo Kozanlian for the interview he kindly agreed to give me, as well as for the trust and great generosity he has shown me. My thanks also go to Hayk Demoyan (Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan) for the on-going discussions shared with him. I am grateful to Vincent Fontana for his careful re-reading of my text, and to Jonathan Hensher for his translation of this paper initially written in French.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adalian, R. P. (2003) L’ambassadeur Morgenthau et l’élaboration de la politique américaine de protestation et d’intervention contre le génocide, Revue d’histoire de la Shoah, 177–178: 425–435.
Agamben, G. (1999) Ce qui reste d’Auschwitz: l’archive et le témoin (trans. Pierre Alfieri) (Paris: Payot et Rivages).
Alloa, E. and S. Kristensen (eds.) (2014) Témoignage et survivance (Genève: Métis Presses).
Altounian, J. (2009) Parcours d’un écrit de survivant jusqu’à son inscription psychique, ou temporalité d’élaboration d’un héritage traumatique, in Vahram & Janine Altounian (eds.), Mémoires du génocide arménien. Héritage traumatique et travail analytique (Paris: Presses Universitaire de France).
Armenia (2009) El Museo del Genocidio emitió una tarjeta postal en su conmemoracion. March 5: p. 5.
Arnoux, R. (2004) Arménie 1947: les naufragés de la terre promise (Aix-en-Provence: Edisud).
Avagyan, S. (2012) Becoming Aurora: Translating the story of Arshaluys Mardiganian, Dissidences. Hispanic Journal of Theory and Criticism, 4(8), article 13. http://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/dissidences/vol4/iss8/13, accessed July 7, 2015.
Becker, A. & O. Debary (eds.) (2012) Montrer les violences extrêmes: théoriser, créer, historiciser, muséographier (Grane: Créaphis Editions).
Beledian, K. (2009) Traduire un témoignage écrit dans la langue des autres, in Vahram & Janine Altounian (eds.) Mémoires du génocide arménien. Héritage traumatique et travail analytique (Paris: Presses Universitaire de France).
Benjamin, W. (1973/1939) The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, in Illuminations (trans. by Harry Zohn) (London: Fontana): 211–244.
Benjamin, W. (1973/1940) Theses on the philosophy of history, in Illuminations (trans. by Harry Zohn) (London: Fontana): 245–255.
Bregent-Heald, D. (2010) Women in between: Filmic representations of gender, race, and nation in Ramona (1910) and The Barrier (1917) during the Progressive Era, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 31(2): 145–176.
Bryce, J. & A. J. Toynbee (2005/1916) The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (1915–1916) (London: Taderon Press).
Dadrian, V. (1995) Autopsie du génocide arménien (trans. Marc & Mikaël Nichanian) (Brussels: Complexe).
Dadrian, V. & T. Akcam (2011) Judgment at Istanbul, The Armenian Genocide Trials (Oxford: Berghahn Books).
Frieze, D.-L. (2014) Three films, one genocide. Remembering the Armenian Genocide through Ravished Armenia(s), in Nigel Eltringham & Pam Maclean (eds.), Remembering Genocide (London: Routledge): 38–53.
Garibian, S. (2009) Le crime contre l’humanité au regard des principes fondateurs de l’État moderne. Naissance et consécration d’un concept (Geneva: LGDJ, Bruylant).
Garibian, S. (2010) From the 1915 Allied Joint Declaration to the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres: Back to an international criminal law in progress, Armenian Review, 52(1–2): 86–103.
Guerzoni, B. (2013) Cancellare un popolo. Immagini e documenti del genocidio armeno (Milano: Mimesis).
Kévonian, D. (2005) Photographie, génocide et transmission: l’exemple armé-nien, Les Cahiers de la Shoah, 8(1): 119–149.
Kevorkian, R. (2003) La Turquie face à ses responsabilités. Le procès des criminels Jeunes-Turcs (1918–1920), Revue d’histoire de la Shoah, 177–178: 166–205.
Kozanlian, E. (1998) Les ojos de Cine Seto, Armenia: October 14.
Kozanlian, E. (1999) A propósito del libro Subasta de almas, Armenia: May 19.
Lowy, M. (2003–4) Progrès et catastrophe. La conception de l’histoire de Walter Benjamin, Historein, http://www.historeinonline.org/index.php/historein/article/view/88, accessed July 7, 2015.
Mascolo, D. (1987) Autour d’un effort de mémoire. Sur une lettre de Robert Antelme (Paris: Maurice Nadeau).
Matiossian, V. (2014) The quest for Aurora: On Ravished Armenia and its surviving fragment, The Armenian Weekly, April 15.
McLagan, M. (2006) Introduction: Making human rights claims public, American Anthropologist, 108(1): 191–195.
Morgenthau, H. (2010/1918) Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing).
Near-East relief activities regarding the Armenian refugees (1981/1922) (Aix-en-Provence: Edisud).
New York Times (1915) Allies to Punish Turks Who Murder. May 24: p.1.
Nichanian, M. (2003) De l’archive. La honte, in Catherine Coquio (ed.), L’histoire trouée. Négation et témoignage (Nantes: L’Atalante).
Nichanian, M. (2006) La perversion historiographique. Une réflexion arménienne (Paris: Lignes).
Nichanian, M. (2006) La révolution nationale (Geneva: MétisPresses).
Power, S. (2003) “A Problem from Hell”. America and the Age of Genocide (New York: Harper Perennial).
Rodogno, D. (2014) Beyond Relief: A Sketch of the Near East Relief’s Humanitarian Operations, 1918–1929, Monde(s), 2(6): 45–64.
Rollet, S. (2011) Une éthique du regard (Paris: Hermann).
Sanchez, M. (1996) Imágenes mudas de Armenia, Clarin, April 21.
Sardarabad (2009) A noventa años de “Armenia violada”y “Subasta de almas.” March 4: p. 8.
Schwartz, V. R. (2001) Walter Benjamin for historians, The American Historical Review, 106(5): 1721–1743.
Slide, A. (1996) The Silent Feminists: America’s First Women Directors (Lanham, MD: Scarecow Press).
Slide, A. (1997) Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press).
Torchin, Leshu (2006) Ravished Armenia: Visual media, humanitarian advocacy, and the formation of witnessing publics, American Anthropologist, 108(1): 214–220.
Waintrater, Régine (2009) Quand vivre est tout le sacré, in Vahram & Janine Altounian (eds.), Mémoires du génocide arménien. Héritage traumatique et travail analytique (Paris: Presses Universitaire de France).
Copyright information
© 2016 Sévane Garibian
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Garibian, S. (2016). Ravished Armenia (1919): Bearing Witness in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In: Mass Media and the Genocide of the Armenians. Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-56402-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-56402-3_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56606-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56402-3
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)