On the Specificity of Vasken Shushanyan’s “Diary” (“Oragir”)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the little-studied “Diary” (1936–1941) by the French-Armenian prose writer Vasken Shushanyan. The study focuses on the key questions raised in the “Diary”: the writer’s personal drama, his existential reflections and confessions, the exploration of the literary and cultural issues of the time, the anxieties characteristic of the Diaspora, and the destructive consequences of war.

As a subgenre of autobiographical prose, the “Diary” —through its intimate and sincere mode of narration—makes the author’s voice more audible and establishes organic links with his other works. Chronologically, it continues the series of writings that began in 1925 with “Messy”, “Inner Landscape”, and “Chronicle Lyrical”. However, in the “Diary“, Shushanian, adhering to the conventions of the rules of the diary genre, records the events of his life beginning in 1936, depicting his daily routine and, through his diary entries, creating a space where internal and external biographies intersect.