Vol. XLIV No. 184 Fall 2005
The Fall 2005 issue of Ararat contains an advance English language excerpt from the controversial novel The Bastard of Istanbul. Author Elif Shafak was tried in Turkey for denigrating "Turkishness" after 60,000 Turkish language copies of her novel were sold. Another scoop is the publication of an excerpt from Ken Janjigian's forthcoming tragicomic novel Defending Infinity. Two travelers explore Armenian identity: Rachel Goshgarian found medieval Armenia in modern Eastern Turkey, while Mary Matosian and her merry band found inspiration in Soviet Armenia in 1981. Ben Alexander judges prominent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington's "rant of zealous populism" as dangerous, privileging Anglo-Protestant culture over other elements of contemporary American society, including Armenians. Neery Melkonian argues that conceptual artist Nina Katchadourian's art approaches problems of this world by remapping and reterritorializing memory. In a second article, Melkonian reviews photography from the Arab world, including works by several Armenians. Victoria Rowe looks at the treatment of gender roles and issues of modernity in Alexandre Shirvanzade's 1902 play Did She have the Right?, and translates its first act. This Ararat issue includes Florence Avakian's interview of maestro Constantine Orbelian, Michael Stone's examination of a medieval Armenian epic on Adam (of Adam and Eve fame), poems by Der-Hovanessian and Snowber, and book reviews--Levon Saryan on the history of Armenian money, and Agop Hacikyan on a new novel by Moris Farhi.
