What is Armenia to Me? Diasporicity in the Works of William Saroyan

Abstract

This article argues for a rereading of William Saroyan, one that treats him as an artist who engaged critically with concepts of home and homeland within the broader discourse of diaspora. Saroyan was not a panegyrist who idealized what it meant to be an Armenian in diaspora, nor did his Armenianness act as a foil to an optimistic outlook. Rather, his works exhibit a rigorous investigation of the characteristic liminality of diaspora and its attendant contradictions.

Keywords

• homeland
• diaspora
• Armenian-American literature
• transnationalism
• William Saroyan