Skip to main content

Home    Aim    Team       

Fustanellas and chlamydes : Historical memory and national identity, 1821–1930

Item

Title

Fustanellas and chlamydes : Historical memory and national identity, 1821–1930

Alternative Title

Historical Memory in Greece, 1821–1930: Performing the Past in the Present

Date

2020

Abstract

How did Greek society remember its recent and distant past – Antiquity, Byzantium, the Greek Revolution and the “war decade” of 1912–1922? How did cultural memory relate to war experiences (victory or defeat, mass death and mourning, heroes and martyrs)? How did the bestowal of meaning and interpretation of the past become the subject of negotiation or conflict between local and social groups?
With an emphasis on people's desire to “see” and “experience” the past, the study utilises a wide range of sources, such as oil paintings, lithographs, photographs, monuments (statues, busts, monuments in memory of the fallen), memorial ceremonies and national anniversaries, directed historical events, tableaux vivants, revivals of ancient drama and ancient customs, parades and popular commercial shows. The dramatisation of history and empathy, the pursuit of authenticity through plausibility, and ultimately deception and illusion are approached as elements of a modern historical consciousness that emerges almost simultaneously throughout Europe.
Starting from 1821, the birthplace of the modern Greek state, and ending in 1930, when the centenary of independence was celebrated, this book analyses the cultural practices through which the past is represented, directed, performed and “consumed” in public space. It is a social and cultural history of memory during the first critical century of the Greek state, when the rule of historical memory that defines and supports the national identity is formed. The way we now remember the Greek Revolution, the pantheon of heroic figures, the relationship between ancient and modern Greece and the place of Byzantium are associated with places of memory, material and symbolic, that were constructed at that time.

(Edited and translated blurb from publisher’s website)

Type specialization

Format

Data sets

Language

Number Of Pages - Duration

624

Rights

All Rights Reserved

note

The book was published in English by Routledge (2022).

Position: 5966 (20 views)