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The
Magical Pine Ring
Culture and the Imagination in Armenian-American Literature
Margaret Bedrosian |
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Margaret
Bedrosian's pioneering interdisciplinary study study examines the continuing
effect of Armenian history on Armenian-American writing. Using the work
of ten Armenian-American poets and fiction and non-fiction writers, she
shows the continuing impact on Armenian Americans of cultural symbols, myths,
and attitudes carried over from the Old World, and explores the ways in
which two cultures meet, conflict, and become integrated in the imagination.
Through analysis of writers' actual or fictionalized
experience, The Magical Pine Ring
provides an understanding of the Armenians' specific
concerns as Armenians and as immigrants, the effect of their self-awareness
as Armenians on their adaptation to America, the typical and stereotypical
situations and personalities that emerged with time, and the key values
and beliefs that endured even as names were changed and assimilation blurred
physical and social demeanor. |
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"The
author has succeeded in formulating, for the first time, the concept of
a distinct Armenian-American literature and a literary consciousness . .
. it breaks new ground in the self-understanding and collective consciousness
of the Armenian Americans."—Vahe Oshagan, Editor-in-Chief of
Raft, A Journal of Armenian Poetry and Criticism |
