Hearing The Retreat of Shahnur

Résumé En Fr

In 2007, Shahan Shahnur’s oeuvre de force Retreat without Song (Նահանջը առանց երգի) was published in Turkish. This article argues that the decision to entitle the Turkish translation of the novel as Silent Retreat [Sessiz Ricat] was problematic due to its disregard of the role of the songs, melodies, prayers, and so forth haunting the novel. Drawing on the importance of various mnemonic elements continuously appearing in the novel, the article examines the re-construction of the notion of home and Armenian identity for the protagonist of the novel, Bedros/Pierre, who had to leave Turkey, his homeland, in the wake of the post-genocidal Republican period. It calls for the necessity for recognition of this story of displacement not in silence but in the acknowledgement of the absence of song as a means to interpret the mnemonic “signposts” squeezed in Bedros/Pierre’s narration which enable him to mark his identity, subjectivity, and the idea of home-land.

L’année 2007 a vu la publication en turc, pour la première fois, de La retraite sans fanfare (Նահանջը առանց երգի) de Chahan Chahnour. Cet article remet en question le choix éditorial d’intituler cette traduction La Retraite silencieuse (Sessiz Ricat), qui omet l’importance des chants et mélodies si présents dans ce roman. Il analyse la reconstruction de la notion de foyer (home) et d’une identité arménienne pour le protagoniste Bedros/Piere, qui a dû quitter la Turquie, son homeland, dans le contexte de la période républicaine qui, sur place, a fait suite au génocide.