Telling the unspoken

Abstract This article shines a light on the range of narrative processes through which descendants of Armenian Genocide ( Medz Yeghern ) survivors have inherited and reinterpreted traumatic histories within diasporic family contexts. Focusing on a selection of survivors who were children in 1915 (the “1.5 generation”), the study analyzes how memories of violence and displacement are shaped through everyday family communication and emotional dynamics. Drawing on a diverse corpus of Armenian diasporic cultural texts and employing interpretive narrative analysis, the article identifies a typology of four narrative modes of transmission. The findings show that transmission occurs not only through explicit recollections and moral injunctions, but also through affective atmospheres, patterned silences, and the narrative labor of later generations. By highlighting the performative work required to transform inherited fragments into coherent stories, the study contributes to broader understandings of how intergenerational storytelling mediates between vulnerability and resilience in the aftermath of mass violence.