Examining identity in relation to globalization and migration, this book uses narratives and memoirs from contemporary authors who have lived 'in-between' two or more languages. It explores the human desire to find one's 'own place' in new cultural contexts, and looks at the role of language in shaping a sense of belonging in society.
"Theodore Metochites, a distinguished figure in the intellectual and political landscape of the early Palaiologan period (1261-1341), was born in Constantinople in 1270. The On Morals or Concerning Education is an extensive disquisition about the significance and status of cultural education (paideia) in the context of Palaiologan society. The oration might also be seen at least partly as an autobiographical narrative exposing Metochites's inner reflections and anxieties. The On Morals belongs to the genre of the protreptikos, a hortatory speech designed to encourage its readers to study philosophy and attain virtue. With the On Morals Metochites sought to establish himself as a continuator of ancient moral philosophy in late Byzantium"--
Emiliano J. Buis examines the sources of classical Greece to challenge both the state-centeredness of mainstream international legal history and the omnipresence of war and excessive violence in ancient times. Making ample use of epigraphic as well as literary, rhetorical, and historiographical sources, the book offers the first widespread account of the narrative foundations of the (il)legality of warfare in the classical Hellenic world. In a clear yet sophisticated manner, Buis convincingly proves that the traditionally neglected study of the performance of ancient Greek poleis can contribute to a better historical understanding of those principles of international law underlying the practices and applicable rules on the use of force and the conduct of hostilities
Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Yiannis Papatheodorou, a The cruel April of 1944»: Fiction, History and Memory in Straus Tsirkas's Drifting Cities Stratis Tsirkas, a distinguished Greek diaspora novelist in Egypt, published his important and controversial trilogy {The Club, Ariagne, The Bat), in the early '60s. The novel is situated in three colonial Mediterranean cities —Jerusalem, Cairo and Alexandria— drifting towards chaos in a war-torn Middle East, during 1942-1944. As far as the plot is concerned, the trilogy is inscribed to the wider context of postwar European literary «master-narratives» elaborating representations of war, Nazism and resistance, and also opening an agenda to the traumatic phenomena of a discontinuous modernity: violence, social repression, exclusion of the Other. This article discusses the politics of history and memory in Stratis Tsirkas's trilogy Drifting Cities in order to show how he problematizes the tropes of historical representation in a dialogical perspective, by focalizing to the Greek military left underground «movement of April 1944». His historical point of view, which clearly can be identified as the «return of the repressed», is related to the questions of an alternative narration about the past, enriched within a critical and deliberating interpretation of the left collective memory.
Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Panayotis Stathis, Rethinking the 1821 Greek Revolution. A reading of Nikos Theotokas, The Life of General Makriyannis: History and Memoirs Nikos Theotokas' most recent book on Makriyannis is a characteristic specimen of new trends in the study of the Greek revolution of 1821, which shift emphasis from battles and politics to society. Theotokas uses as main analytical categories the antithetic notions of "tradition" and "modernity". However, Theotokas follows a less rigid and more sophisticated approach of this scheme. Instead of treating people of the traditional and modern world in a static way, he explores how they interacted, and emphasizes the dynamic nature of their relationship during the transitional period of the revolution. Theotokas' study on Makriyannis comprises a double venture. On the one hand it constitutes a historical biography of the General, while on the other it examines the long process of writing (1829-1852) his memoirs. Through this parallel narrative, Theotokas reveals how Makriyannis' changing attitude towards facts stated in the memoirs is modified by the specific historical conjuncture in which each of these facts is narrated by the author. The earliest parts of the text, written in the aftermath of the revolution, comprise a mixture of traditional and modern political discourse, in which the responsibility for both the negative developments of the war and of civil conflicts is often attributed to the traditional social elites. However, under the King Otto's reign, Makriyannis' expectations concerning his new position in the post-revolutionary society were gradually disappointed. Thus, in the latter parts of the memoirs Makriyannis clearly formulates a moralistic interpretation of the political developments, according to which the outlandish, selfish and warless politicians seized power and treated unfairly the pure fighters of the revolution who gave everything for its success.