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Looking Back is a compelling account of how Armenians, as migrants in Canada, remember their past lives in Turkey and make sense of their experiences in two very different landscapes. Anchored in the workings of the Turkish nation, theirs are stories about loss, denial, trauma, and discrimination on the one hand, resilience, survival, and community on the other.
Bayar's in-depth examination tackles questions about memory, citizenship, and being a minority inside a nationalist landscape while revealing rich and multilayered accounts of everyday encounters with institutions, friends, and strangers.
Looking Back is a timely study about the costs of nation-building and the ways minorities navigate an exclusionary landscape.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
IntroductionChapter 1: Talking about the Violent Past State Violence and Imagining the Nation
1915: "The Heavy Sound of Silence" and Remembering
Weaving the Past with the Present
Chapter 2: Encounters with the State The Myriad Ways of Pursuing Turkification: The State's Lens
Experiencing and Making Sense of "Hot Nationalism"
Serving the Nation: Military Service, Citizenship and Being a Minority
Further Encounters with the State and "Nation Talk"
Chapter 3: Education, Nationalist Politics, and Minority Lives (Re)Designing the Educational Domain: The State's Lens
Life Chances and Managing Institutional Hurdles
Biography, History, and Unearthing the Past
Sociability and Discrimination: Interactions with Friends and Teachers
Chapter 4: Remembering Places, and People Remembering Places: Life in Istanbul
Remembering Summers on the Princes' Islands
Interactions Across the Ethnoreligious Divide
Chapter 5: Encounters with Strangers Speaking Turkish and Regulating Surnames: The State's Lens
Speaking Turkish at the "Right Places" and the "Right Way"
"Living with One's Name": Strategies and Practices in Everyday Interactions
ConclusionReferencesIndex
