Retelling the Past in Contemporary Greek Literature, Film, and Popular Culture

Description

This book deals with historical consciousness and its artistic expressions in contemporary Greece since 1989 from the point of view that contemporary Greeks have been faced with the contradictions between on the one hand a glorious, world-famous yet distant past and, on the other, a traumatic contemporary history of wars, expulsions, civil strife and political and economic crises. Such clashes of imaginary identifications and collective traumas call for interpretations not only from historians but also from artists and storytellers. Therefore, the chapters in this volume explore the ways in which sensitive and creative perspectives of art approach and appropriate history in Greece. Through a rich collection of analytical case studies and creative reflections on Greece’s past, present, and future this volume presents the reader with the ways a set of contemporary Greek storytellers in different genres have incorporated previously under-explored or little-known themes, events, and epochs in modern Greek history showing how the past, by being interpreted and represented in the present, can teach us a lot about contemporary Greek society. The themes that form the point of departure for the stories told or retold cover various significant components of Greek history and culture such as ancient myths, the Ottoman period, the Greek War of Independence and the Greek Civil War, but also less prominent or known aspects of Greek history such as the Greek Enlightenment, the long and tragic history of Greek Jewry, and migration to and from Greece. Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction. History in the Storyteller’s Toolbox Part One POPULARIZING NEGLECTED PASTS Chapter One. Getting Intimate with the Unwanted Past: New Approaches to the Ottoman Legacy in Greek Fiction Chapter Two. Public History and the Revival of Repressed Sephardic Heritage in Thessaloniki CONSTRUCTING PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE IN MIGRANT FICTION Chapter Three. Poetry Traversing History: Narrating Louis Tikas in David Mason’s Ludlow Chapter Four. First-Person Past, Second-Person Present, and the Future of Now: Gazmend Kapllani’s Transnational, Interpersonal Timescapes TRAUMA, SENTIMENTALITY, AND CRISIS IN LITERATURE Chapter Five. To Remember and Forgive: The Afterlives of Queen Frederica’s Childtowns in Contemporary Greek Fiction Chapter Six. Fashioning a European Past for the National Self: Nikos Themelis’ For Some Companionship Chapter Seven. The Anxieties of History: Greek Fiction in Crisis SATIRE AND NOSTALGIA IN POPULAR CULTURE Chapter Eight. The Use of History for the Denunciation of the Present: Lena Kitsopoulou’s Athanasios Diakos—The Comeback Chapter Nine. Television Fiction as a Window into a Nation’s Past: The Arbitraries and the Concept of the Neohellene Chapter Ten. Ancient Greek Mythology and the Culture of the Neohellene in Animated TV Satire Chapter Eleven. Childhood Memories, Family Life, Nostalgia, and Historical Trauma in Contemporary Greek Cinema Part Two Preface A VISUAL JOURNEY THROUGH THE LENS Chapter Twelve. Witnesses for the Future: The Past Reflected in the Despair of the Present Chapter Thirteen. Still, Short, Cut: The Early Films of Sonia Liza Kenterman A LITERARY ECHO OF THE REFUGEE CRISIS Chapter Fourteen. What Are They After, Our Souls, Off the Coast of Lesbos? Reflections on Elias Venezis’ “The Isle of Lios” (1928) The Isle of Lios HISTORY FROM THE STORYTELLER’S VIEWPOINT Chapter Fifteen. Four Hundred Pleats Chapter Sixteen. Think Before You Learn Index About the Contributors