researcher to examine whether and how people in a multitude of and “social location[s]” (Mahler Pessar 2001: 445) internalize and (re)produce hegemonic nationalist narratives and ideologies. V. Discussion Greek Civilization “Ancient Byzantium Greek Revolution World Wars Balkan Wars Civil War Polytechnic So much history, so much blood by Greeks for this place called Greece, and you come now to sell everything out.” I selected this quote to anchor the analysis, because it demonstrates how the nation’s historical trajectory or, rather, an essentialized, constructed version of this trajectory dictates, – – in a highly normative fashion, its future course. The list suggests that the author has identified the key chapters in the history of the nation and stated them in chronological order chapters – written and enacted, throughout the This latter element, the axiomatic ages, “by Greeks”. of the actors, appears to be the thread that runs through and allows the arrangement “Greekness” in linear fashion of items highly disparate temporally as well as in nature, ranging from “Ancient Greek a concept? a body of knowledge and cultural material?) to a Civilization” (an era? student revolt toward the end of the Fordist period. Reified and essentialized, this forms a and Guattari 1987: 6) that allows only for “Greekness” “pre-discursive core” (Deleuze specific ways of imagining and enacting collectivity. Nationalist historiography and the public and popular discourses it promotes represent the nation as a fixed, homogeneous, immemorial unit with a distinct ethno-cultural core that changes little, if any, in response to shifting socio-historical conditions (Bosworth 2007, Özkimirli 2003). In the case of Greece, transcendental character of the Greek and Sofos “the nation” (Özkimirli
researcher to examine whether and how people in a multitude of “social location[s]” (Mahler and Pessar 2001: 445) internalize and (re)produce hegemonic nationalist narratives and ideologies. V. Discussion “Ancient Greek Civilization Byzantium Greek Revolution World Wars Balkan Wars Civil War Polytechnic So much history, so much blood by Greeks for this place called Greece, and you come now to sell everything out.” I selected this quote to anchor the analysis, because it demonstrates how the nation’s historical trajectory – or, rather, an essentialized, constructed version of this trajectory – dictates, in a highly normative fashion, its future course. The list suggests that the author has identified the key chapters in the history of the nation and stated them in chronological order – chapters written and enacted, throughout the ages, “by Greeks”. This latter element, the axiomatic “Greekness” of the actors, appears to be the thread that runs through and allows the arrangement in linear fashion of items highly disparate temporally as well as in nature, ranging from “Ancient Greek Civilization” (an era? a concept? a body of knowledge and cultural material?) to a student revolt toward the end of the Fordist period. Reified and essentialized, this “Greekness” forms a “pre-discursive core” (Deleuze and Guattari 1987: 6) that allows only for specific ways of imagining and enacting collectivity. Nationalist historiography and the public and popular discourses it promotes represent the nation as a fixed, homogeneous, immemorial unit with a distinct ethno-cultural core that changes little, if any, in response to shifting socio-historical conditions (Bosworth 2007, Özkimirli 2003). In the case of Greece, “the transcendental character of the Greek nation” (Özkimirli and Sofos