ISSN 1829-4618

THE ORAL TRADITION OF THE ARMENIAN-AMERICANS IN THE COURSE OF TIME

By: Verjiné Svazlian, Doctor in Philology, Leading Researcher, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, NAS RA, vsvaz333@yahoo.com

Yerevan: GitutyunPublishing House of NAS RA,2021, 904 pages, DVD + map)

The book comprises a “Historical-folkloric study” (in Armenian and English) and “Primary Sources,” which have been written down and saved from a total loss from the representatives of the senior generation of the Western-Armenians miraculously rescued from the Armenian Genocide and taken refuge in the USA (and their subsequent generations) during the author’s five trips (1979-2008) to that country. These historical, folkloric and ethnographic materials (1,165 units) represent the general picture of the past and present life of the Armenians of the USA from the very beginning up to the present days, the difficulties the Armenian-Americans have overcome and the achievements they have recorded. The volume includes a Documentary Table of 206 narrators and their communicated materials, a Glossary, Commentaries, Indexes for the Narrators, personal names and toponyms, musical notations of the songs, photographs of the narrators, a map of the “Resettlement of the Armenians in the United States of America” and a DVD – “Performances of the Popular Songs Widespread Among the Armenian-Americans.”