The Greek Idea: The Formation of National and Transnational Identities

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How do those living in diaspora form their own national and transnational identity "The Greek Idea" offers a new critical paradigm from which to explore these identities. Drawing upon postcolonial theory, Maria Koundoura addresses and analyses the cultural material that produced Greece's representation as both Europe's origin and 'other'. The long association of Greece and English Literature began with English travellers' 'discovery' of Greece in the late-eighteenth century and the reinforcement of the myth which placed Greece as the location of Western culture. However Greece now finds itself on the boundary of a Europe which had originally placed it at the centre. Koundoura maps what this dual representation signifies for Greeks, both national and diasporic. In doing so, she touches on England, Greece, the United States, Australia and twentieth century diaspora cultures. For scholars of postcolonial, English, European, Balkan, Modern Greek, and Diaspora studies this fascinating contribution to the growing area of transnational culture studies opens up the critical discourse in their field.

Reviews

""In 'The Greek Idea', Maria modermodernitynity presents readers with a superb rendition of the current debates over how to approach 'moderntiy' as a terminus within 'history' that have animated traditional disciplines, such as history and philosophy, in their confrontation with postmodern and postcolonial theories. By putting Greece and its historical and diasporic transformations into the frame of recent concerns over identity formation within postmodernity and postcolonialism, Koundoura has introduced a fascinating set of problems that will engage and inform critics working across a number of debates and disciplines-historiography, political theory, feminism, colonial discourse studies, media and cultural studies."" -- Gerald MacLean, University of York

""Professor Koundoura's book promises to transform the literature on transnational cultural studies, colonialism, postcolonial theory and on multicultural pedagogy and curriculum initiatives. Maria Koundoura is one of the most rigorous, acute and original voices speaking in the fields of colonial and postcolonial literary studies....Maria's Koundoura's work is absolutely essential for understanding the difficult questions that have emerged in global colonial and postcolonial studies. Maria Koundoura's work should prove instrumental in transforming multicultural studies in the US, Balkan studies, Eighteenth century and Victorian British and colonial and neo-colonial Greek and Australian studies."" -- Geeta Patel, Wellesley College

Author Bio

Maria Koundoura completed her PhD at Stanford University and is currently an Associate Professor in the department of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College