From both sides of a border, writing home : the autoethnography of an Armenian-Canadian

• Main Author: Yaghejian, Arminée
• Other Authors: Beer, Ann (advisor)
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 2002
• Subjects: Armenian Canadians; Armenians > Ethnic identity; Literacy
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79814

This thesis explores issues of literacy and identity through a social constructionist perspective by discussing the concept of a linguistic and national home for an Armenian-Canadian. Through autoethnography, I connect my personal experiences to my culture, and construct a sense of 'home' by writing from both sides of a border: Armenian and Canadian. Autobiographical approaches make use of the self to construct meanings that illuminate larger themes and bear implications for wider audiences (Cole & Knowles, 2000; Kamanos-Gamelin, 2001; Mitchell & Weber, 1999; O'Reilly-Scanlon, 2000). Thus, as I describe the outcomes of my experiences of literacy and identity, I consider the need for critical pedagogy in order to create or 'write' home. === This self-study is based on my realities and the ways in which I understand those realities. Moreover, it follows a phenomenological aim to "uncover and describe the structures, the internal meaning structures, of lived experience" (van Manen, 1997, p. 10). However, the value of finding meanings in the past lies in the possibilities to construct the future. Shirinian (2000) points out that "in the diaspora, meaning has been displaced but not replaced, and one of the principal problems the very concept of Armenian diaspora culture seeks to understand is the relationship between the experience of cultural displacement and the construction of cultural identity" (p. 5). By writing about my home from both sides of a border, I hope to bridge this gap and offer new meanings and perceptions in understanding the Armenian-Canadian experience.