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Author: Vaia Touna Publisher: ISBN: Category : Greek drama Languages : en Pages : 230
Book Description
This study is about a series of operational acts of identification, such as interpretations, categorizations, representations, classifications, through which past materials have acquired their meaning and therefore identity. Furthermore, this meaning-making will be demonstrated always to be situational and relational in the sense that the meaning of past material is a historical product created by strategic historic agents through their contemporary acts of identification and, as situated historical products, they are always under scrutiny and constant re-fabrication by yet other historical agents who are on the scene with yet other goals. It will also be evident throughout this study that meanings (identities) do not transcend time and space, and neither do they hide deep in the core of material artifacts awaiting to be discovered. The Introduction lays the theoretical and methodological framework of the study, situating its historiographical and sociological interests in the study of identities and the past, arguing for an approach that looks at the processes and techniques by which material and immaterial artifacts acquire their meaning. In Chapter 1 I look at scholarly interpretations as an operational act of identification; by the use of such anachronisms (which are inevitable when we study the past) as the term religion and the idea of the individual self, a certain widely-shared, and thoroughly modern understanding of Euripides' play Hippolytus was made possible. Chapter 2 is concerned with the process of categorization, as another act of identification, which allows scholars to identify, and thereby describe (or better construct) the ancient Greek world by dividing it between what appeared to be naturally occurring private and public zones, through the use of categories such as "mystery cults," "voluntary associations," and "mystery religions." Although Chapter 3 is mainly on representations, it is evident that interpretations and categorizations are both effectively used in the restoration of a pitted iconography of a small church in Thessaloniki, Greece, which is often explained as an act of iconoclasm. Instead of focusing on the pitted iconography as an instance of iconoclasm, the chapter once again exemplifies the shift of this project by looking at how a new symbol was fabricated by commentators by means of the representation, interpretation and categorization of material from the archive of the fragmented past. In Chapter 4 it is made evident how all of the intersecting processes of the previous chapters are in place in the construction of "traditional villages" in Greece. Although classification has been an important operational act of identification, it would not be enough without the way with which representation, interpretation and categorization have been used by strategic social actors in order to constitute what counts as a "traditional village," doing so for their own social, economic, and political needs and thus contemporary interests. The Epilogue summarizes and exemplifies the shift of approach that the project is advocating by demonstrating how all of these operational acts, each of which have been identified in the previous chapters, are all working together in the construction of our view of the past and its relation to present interests.
Author: Vaia Touna Publisher: ISBN: Category : Greek drama Languages : en Pages : 230
Book Description
This study is about a series of operational acts of identification, such as interpretations, categorizations, representations, classifications, through which past materials have acquired their meaning and therefore identity. Furthermore, this meaning-making will be demonstrated always to be situational and relational in the sense that the meaning of past material is a historical product created by strategic historic agents through their contemporary acts of identification and, as situated historical products, they are always under scrutiny and constant re-fabrication by yet other historical agents who are on the scene with yet other goals. It will also be evident throughout this study that meanings (identities) do not transcend time and space, and neither do they hide deep in the core of material artifacts awaiting to be discovered. The Introduction lays the theoretical and methodological framework of the study, situating its historiographical and sociological interests in the study of identities and the past, arguing for an approach that looks at the processes and techniques by which material and immaterial artifacts acquire their meaning. In Chapter 1 I look at scholarly interpretations as an operational act of identification; by the use of such anachronisms (which are inevitable when we study the past) as the term religion and the idea of the individual self, a certain widely-shared, and thoroughly modern understanding of Euripides' play Hippolytus was made possible. Chapter 2 is concerned with the process of categorization, as another act of identification, which allows scholars to identify, and thereby describe (or better construct) the ancient Greek world by dividing it between what appeared to be naturally occurring private and public zones, through the use of categories such as "mystery cults," "voluntary associations," and "mystery religions." Although Chapter 3 is mainly on representations, it is evident that interpretations and categorizations are both effectively used in the restoration of a pitted iconography of a small church in Thessaloniki, Greece, which is often explained as an act of iconoclasm. Instead of focusing on the pitted iconography as an instance of iconoclasm, the chapter once again exemplifies the shift of this project by looking at how a new symbol was fabricated by commentators by means of the representation, interpretation and categorization of material from the archive of the fragmented past. In Chapter 4 it is made evident how all of the intersecting processes of the previous chapters are in place in the construction of "traditional villages" in Greece. Although classification has been an important operational act of identification, it would not be enough without the way with which representation, interpretation and categorization have been used by strategic social actors in order to constitute what counts as a "traditional village," doing so for their own social, economic, and political needs and thus contemporary interests. The Epilogue summarizes and exemplifies the shift of approach that the project is advocating by demonstrating how all of these operational acts, each of which have been identified in the previous chapters, are all working together in the construction of our view of the past and its relation to present interests.
Author: Vaia Touna Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9004348611 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 193
Book Description
Taking seriously critiques of historiography produced in recent decades, Vaia Touna advocates for an alternative approach to the way the past is studied. From Euripides’ tragedy Hippolytus, to the notion of voluntary associations in the Greco-Roman world, to the authenticity of traditional villages in Greece, Fabrications of the Greek Past argues that meanings (and thus identities) do not transcend time and space, and neither do they hide deep in the core of material artifacts, awaiting to be discovered by the careful interpreter. Instead, this book demonstrates that meanings are always relative to their present-day context; they are historical products created by social actors through their ever-contemporary acts of identification. ---- "By disturbing the notion of an easily knowable Greek past, Touna makes an invaluable contribution to critical scholarship regarding ancient cultures and to contemporary theory about ideological uses of history." - Naomi Goldenberg, University of Ottawa "From an insider to Greek tradition, expert in its modern appropriations and translations, Fabrications is an important stimulus to metatheory and self-reflexivity in the study of religion, ancient and contemporary." - Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa "Vaia Touna expertly dissects modern discourses on the past, arguing that our contemporary interests don't just color our accounts of the past, they constitute them. A fantastic book." - Brent Nongbri, author of Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept
Author: Georgios Arabatzis Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1443892823 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
The question of Modern Greek identity is certainly timely. The political events of the previous years have once more brought up such questions as: What does it actually mean to be a Greek today? What is Modern Greece, apart from and beyond the bulk of information that one would find in an encyclopaedia and the established stereotypes? This volume delves into the timely nature of these questions and provides answers not by referring to often-cited classical Antiquity, nor by treating Greece as merely and exclusively a modern nation-state. Rather, it approaches the subject in a kaleidoscopic way, by tracing the line from the Byzantine Empire to Modern Greek culture, society, philosophy, literature and politics. In presenting the diverse and certainly non-dominant approaches of a multitude of Greek scholars, it provides new insights into a diachronic problem, and will encourage new arguments and counterarguments. Despite commonly held views among Greek intelligentsia or the worldwide community, Modern Greek identity remains an open question – and wound.
Author: Mark R. Thatcher Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0197586449 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 337
Book Description
This analysis of the relationship between collective identities and politics in ancient Greece focuses on four key types of identity - polis identity, ethnicity (e.g., Dorian or Achaean), regional, and Greek - and places these multiple and flexible self-perceptions at the center of a new account of politics in the Greek West.
Author: Hero Hokwerda Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9004495460 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 291
Book Description
In May 1999, a second conference of Hellenists (of all periods and subject areas) from the Dutch-speaking countries was organized in Groningen. The theme of this second conference was ‘Constructions of Greek Past. Identity and Historical Consciousness from Antiquity to the Present.’ The conference theme was described as follows: When seeking to establish its own identity, a culture (country, people, nation) readily resorts to its own history, which it uses either as an example or as something to react against. In recent years there has been a growing awareness that this process often reveals more about a culture in the present day than the historical era to which it harks back: its own identity, and thus its own history, are ‘constructed’ in this way. The constructional approach is usually applied to the birth of new nation states and the development of their national ideologies, particularly in the nineteenth century. But it can be applied more broadly too. Greek culture is an excellent subject area for studying this phenomenon even further back in history, precisely because its history is so long and included several ‘Golden Ages’ to which later periods could (and can) hark back. Greek culture still presents itself as a product of Ancient Greek and/or Byzantine culture. However, the problem of continuity in Greek culture has frequently manifested itself, particularly during periods of radical political, ideological or demographic change. The Homeric influence on the Mycenaean world is therefore also an aspect of this phenomenon. The Homeric world served as an example for later periods, as did the Attic period for the Greeks in the Hellenistic-Roman age. The tensions between the Hellenistic and Roman character of the Greek world had a strong influence on the shaping of the Greek identity during late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Those tensions still exist today (ellenismós/ellenikótita v. romiosyni). The theme was designed to bring together Hellenists of all periods and disciplines (literature, language, history, archaeology, ecclesiastical history, sociology etc.) relating to the Greek world. The colloquium sessions were held in Dutch, but the papers are published in English (two in French).
Author: Johanna Hanink Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674978307 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
Ever since the International Monetary Fund’s first bailout of Greece’s sinking economy in 2010, the phrase “Greek debt” has meant one thing to the country’s creditors. But for millions who claim to prize culture over capital, it means something quite different: the symbolic debt that Western civilization owes to Greece for furnishing its principles of democracy, philosophy, mathematics, and fine art. Where did this other idea of Greek debt come from, Johanna Hanink asks, and why does it remain so compelling today? The Classical Debt investigates our abiding desire to view Greece through the lens of the ancient past. Though classical Athens was in reality a slave-owning imperial power, the city-state of Socrates and Pericles is still widely seen as a utopia of wisdom, justice, and beauty—an idealization that the ancient Athenians themselves assiduously cultivated. Greece’s allure as a travel destination dates back centuries, and Hanink examines many historical accounts that express disappointment with a Greek people who fail to live up to modern fantasies of the ancient past. More than any other movement, the spread of European philhellenism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries carved idealized conceptions of Greece in marble, reinforcing the Western habit of comparing the Greece that is with the Greece that once was. Today, as the European Union teeters and neighboring nations are convulsed by political unrest and civil war, Greece finds itself burdened by economic hardship and an unprecedented refugee crisis. Our idealized image of ancient Greece dangerously shapes how we view these contemporary European problems.
Author: Stratos Myrogiannis Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1443836869 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 215
Book Description
This book examines the role of Greek-speaking intellectuals in nation-formation processes during the Greek Enlightenment. The author explores how scholars invoked the concept of the ‘nation’ and issues closely related to it in order to enforce their demands either for educational reform or for national independence. To be more specific, he studies the construction of a Modern Greek identity in relation to the Greek and European Enlightenment from 1700 up to the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821. The theoretical framework the author deploys is twofold. On the one hand, he exploits the methodological tools provided by the ‘history of concepts’, as formulated by Koselleck, Pocock and Skinner. On the other hand, he deploys specific concepts from current approaches on nation-formation processes in history, drawn especially from the works of Anthony Smith, Benedict Anderson and Eric Hobsbawm. He examines the discursive strategies but also the ideology of relevant works, mainly geographies, histories and political treatises. The corpus of works he studies includes both well-known texts (e.g. by Koraes, Katartzis and Rigas), but also much ignored and so far unexamined works (e.g. by Stanos and Alexandridis). Three arguments are intertwined in the present study. The first issue that this thesis claims to address is the exploration of the incorporation of Byzantium into a Greek historical schema. During the eighteenth century Greek intellectuals attempted to rewrite the history of the Greeks and their main problem was integrating in their narrative the Greek Middle Ages. This period was viewed by them as a historical gap. In their attempt to bridge this gap, the answer they gradually came up with was the invention of what Koraes first named, earlier than is previously thought, ‘Byzantine history’. Secondly, the present study clarifies the particularities of a transformation process regarding the self-image of the Greeks as a political community. This process is evident in the writings of Greek-speaking intellectuals. Influenced by modernity and the emergence of the new political paradigm of the ‘nation’ these scholars imagined Greek-speaking people in terms of a national community. The third argument this book aims to develop is the historical link between the Enlightenment as a philosophical movement and nationalism as an ideology. The author suggests a reinterpretation of the last stage of the Greek Enlightenment. He argues that Greek-speaking scholars transmuted enlightening doctrines into a nationalist ideology in order to satisfy the new political needs of the Greek nation for the creation of an independent state. This enlightened nationalism, however, was not related to the subsequent Romantic ideology, but it was based on the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment. All in all, this book aims to contribute to the study of the Greek Enlightenment by throwing further light on the complex issues of self-image and identity.
Author: Vaia Touna
Author: Vaia Touna
Author: Vaia Touna
Author: Georgios Arabatzis
Author: Mark R. Thatcher
Author: Hero Hokwerda
Author: Johanna Hanink
Author: Stratos Myrogiannis
Author: ohne Autor
Author: Dictionaries. [Greek.]
Author: Samuel Bagster and Sons