Modern Greek Literature’s Intersections with Greek History and the Past: A Concise Outline

Abstract

The first part of this paper is a concise outline of some of the ways in which modern Greek literature has entered into a dialogue with Greek history and the past from the nineteenth century to the present by idealizing, Hellenizing, suppressing, inventing, negotiating, critiquing, or reinterpreting and re-inventing them. Along these lines, the paper weaves together different literary, ideological, and historical threads which help the readers realize that the topics examined by the ensuing papers of this Special Issue do not emerge out of a vacuum, but instead constitute responses to—or have been prompted by—concrete developments in the realms of modern Greek literature, ideology, and history. The second part of the paper delineates the Special Issue’s specific focus, scope, aims, approach and methodology, while summarizing the main arguments and contributions of each of the individual papers.