Multiple Consciousness and Transnationalism in Iranian Armenian Cultural Productions

Abstract: A century ago, W.E.B. Du Bois coined the term ‘double consciousness’ to describe an individual with an identity with several facets, particularly in the context of African-American experiences. A century later, Du Bois’ theory was expanded into a concept called ‘triple consciousness’ to acknowledge the intersectional construction of identities where race might have intersected with ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. to generate complex, multivalent forms of subordination. Expanding Du Bois’ concept of ‘double consciousness’ to Chicana experiences, and disrupting nationalist Anglocentrism, in Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa theorized the ‘border’ as a metaphor for geographical transgressions, sexual boundary crossings, social displacements, and linguistic and cultural dislocations. In conversation with these theorists, I examine Iranian Armenian ‘multiple consciousnesses’, by highlighting their various expressions of diaspora, their many ways of longing to return to a homeland (Armenia and Iran), and their multiple collective consciousnesses, particularly the shared memories of the 1915 genocide. I also provide examples from cultural productions which demonstrate the diasporic transnationalism of Iranian Armenian authors who maintain ties with their homeland while are simultaneously anchored and settled in their host nations.