Diasporalogue (English version)

The main objective of this book, published in 2017 in French, is to encourage dialogue and reflection between Armenians and with the world. The authors hope to provoke a wider response to the debate with this translation into English.

 “It was so beautiful to re-read this wonderful conversation in English. You have had such an astonishing and extraordinary journey, and I’m so happy that it can be shared with so many people.” ATOM EGOYAN

“I have the book in french, and even though my French is not fluent, I enjoyed reading parts of it. I can’t wait to read it in English.”  VAHE BERBERIAN

What do we really know about the history of Armenians worldwide? How do they live their double belonging in the countries of the diaspora? What are the debates that enthrall them and the challenges that they face?

For the first time, two generations of French-Armenians engage in a meandering dialogue to go beyond commonplaces by sharing what has been formative for them in their respective crafts: cinema for the one and journalism for the other. 

Should one give in to assimilation as something inexorable? Or rather, should one attend to re-examining the mechanisms of cultural transmission, without diluting the heritage? Both of them are of the opinion that it is possible to think historically of oneself as double and inheritor of cultures in permanent dialogue. From this dialogue springs a lively exchange where the testimonies of each one’s experience gradually yield their place to a reflection on the larger stakes of a diaspora in the midst of transformation.

THE AUTHORS

Serge AVÉDIKIAN, actor and director coming from theater, appears on screen with We Were One Man and The Red Sweater in 1979. He also directs short, medium-length and feature films, documentaries and animation, notably Barking Island (Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival, 2010), Parajanov, for which he plays the title role, and Lost In Armenia.

Born in Paris, Tigrane YÉGAVIAN has grown up in Portugal and spent a lot of time in Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. An independent journalist, he nowadays collaborates with a number of magazines. He is notably the author of Armenia, In The Shadow Of A Sacred Mountain (Névicata, 2015) and Mission co-written with Bernard Kinvi (Cerf, 2019) and Minorities Of The East, The Forgotten Of History (Rocher, 2019).