Zabel Yesayan, woman and witness, or the truth of the mask

The essay deals with Zabel Yesayan's supposed feminism, both in her literary production and her political activity. It shows that any attempt at a discourse of reconciliation on the basis of women's solidarity became impossible after 1909. This explains the tone of her 1911 testimony on the events in Adana and the powerful appeal to her Turkish compatriots for a future citizenship. Here Yesayan spoke as a witness, not as a woman any more. The fact that after 1911 Yesayan slowly opened for herself a new field of "feminine" writing should be interpreted along that line, as an unexpected consequence oilier turnabout.