Historical Memory in Greece, 1821–1930

Description

This book presents a social and cultural history of collective memory in modern Greece during the first century of state independence, contributing to the debate over the relationship between memory and identity. It discusses how modern Greek society commemorated its distant and recent pasts, both real and imagined, namely antiquity, Byzantium, the Greek Revolution and the Asia Minor Catastrophe; how cultural memory was shaped by the various war experiences (victory, defeat, mass death and mourning, refugeedom); and how memory politics became arenas of social and political strife. Historical painting, monuments, historical pageantry, tableaux vivants, national anniversaries, performances of ancient drama and revivals of ancient games are analyzed as instances where the past was visualized, represented, performed and "consumed". An explosion in public history has taken place over the last decades around the world, with a veritable flood of commemorations, anniversaries and "memory wars". As more and more social groups claim the "right to remember", public discourse and polemics have arisen at the same time that traumatic memory has become a field of international academic research. In the arena of public history, historical memory is being constructed through the sentimental, irrational reception of mythological narratives told through images. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of illustrations Preface and acknowledgments Chronology Introduction Revisiting the social and cultural history of memory Memory and history Visualizing and performing history Memory and identity Structure of the book Notes Chapter 1: Images The present becomes history The philhellenic gaze Missolonghi as a realm of memory Depicting the beginning of the revolution The Bavarian visual canon The need for a historical picture gallery The “great men” The visual canon of national memory Popularization Popular images and traditional painting Notes Chapter 2: Monuments The first hero Mnemonic strategies and the heyday of Kolettis Monuments to foreigners and non-autochthonous Greeks Claiming the memory of the revolution The university and official memory An odd trinity Literary “great men” Byron: romantic hero or symbol of English influence? Kapodistrias and the politics of forgetting “National memories” set in stone Notes Chapter 3: Panoramas History comes alive The Naval Battle of Navarino An “eyewitness” visual account Textbooks of historical “scenography” The panorama at the Olympic Games of 1896 The “unfortunate war” of 1897: commemorating defeat Notes Chapter 4: The new past The monarchy New heroes and the anonymous fallen Pavlos Melas, a “mythogenic” figure The Balkan Wars and war art The Asia Minor Catastrophe and traumatic memory The army, war memory and the national past Notes Chapter 5: The old past Present antiquity Nationalization of antiquity Images for tourists When churches became monuments The familiar past The Byzantine Empire regenerated, Constantinople “reconquered” The royal past and the last emperor Notes Chapter 6: Revivals Spectacular history Wax displays and tableaux vivants Revival as rebirth and continuity Authenticity, forgery, replication Revival of ancient games Staging antiquity The Delphic Festivals Notes Chapter 7: Fustanellas Clothing and identity Evzones and “Amalias” “Traditional costume”, a transnational tradition The fustanella’s journey from historical drama to the popular shadow theater Notes Chapter 8: Pageants Traditional ceremonies and modern civic festivals National anniversaries and parades Historical pageants in Western cities “Historical liturgies” Notes Chapter 9: Centennials Celebrating regeneration in turbulent times Local centennials and the geography of historical memory A “celebratory year”: local anniversaries and monuments “Feminism of the Greek Revolution”: the women’s movement and female memory Historical pageants and reenactments of national history Notes Epilogue One hundred years of memory Images and monuments Memory politics War memory The spectacle of history Regeneration and revival Antiquity and Byzantium Unequal pasts Clio’s clothing Notes Index