Abstract
In his short career as a writer, poet, and literary critic, Leonardo Alishan left a rich literary legacy, a legacy that is not widely known. This article attempts to shed light on an important segment of his literary output: his creations in the genre of genocide literature. Alishan was a third-generation survivor of the Armenian Genocide, the inheritor of his grandmother’s devastating memories, living in the grip of the nightmare of the Catastrophe, never able to transcend it. The everpresent pain that dragged his grandmother from one mental hospital to another reverberated in his literary work, painting a microcosm of a victim nation’s suffering. As an artist in pursuit of beauty in art, Alishan faced the challenge of overcoming the chaotic world of genocide for the sake of order and perceptual harmony. He was not able to solve, and no one has, the dichotomy between the fragmentation forced upon his art as the characteristic of genocide literature and coherence as a condition of beauty in art.
Recommended Citation
Peroomian, Rubina
(2006)
"The Restless World of Leonardo Alishan (March 1951–January 2005): A Burnt Offering on the Altar of the Armenian Genocide,"
Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal:
Vol. 1:
Iss.
3:
Article 6.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol1/iss3/6
