Thou need'st not weep, for I have wept full sore: An affective genealogy of the Armenian lullaby in Turkey

This dissertation is a historical and ethnographic study of the Armenian lullaby in Turkey as a genre of intimacy, testimony, and protest. It traces the affective history accumulated on the lullaby that turns it into a resource for remembrance, story-telling, and the transmission of a sense of loss. Drawing on printed archival material, sound recordings, and interviews, this project unfolds around the musical political history of the Armenian community of the Ottoman Empire and of the Republic of Turkey from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. It contextualizes the formation of the genre of lullaby in nineteenth century Armenian ethnographic collections and in the body of revolutionary poetry and song, historicizing it within gendered politics of land and modernity. By revealing the continuities and gaps in the transmission of this repertory in the Armenian community in Istanbul today, this dissertation points to the displacements and losses that shape the Armenian belonging in Turkey. It argues that the Armenian lullaby as a metonym for a criminalized history has the capacity to challenge any liberal and nationalist discourse on history and culture in Turkey. This dissertation is accompanied by audio files featuring lullaby recordings.