Journal of Modern Greek Studies 

About: Journal of Modern Greek Studies is an academic journal published by Johns Hopkins University Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Modern Greek. It has an ISSN identifier of 0738-1727. Over the lifetime, 788 publications have been published receiving 4694 citations. The journal is also known as: Modern Greek studies.

Power and Solidarity in Modern Greek Conversation: Disagreeing to Agree

Abstract: In Modern Greek conversation, disagreement, which can express power, can also be used to create solidarity among participants. Analysis of a segment of tape-recorded, naturally occurring conversation demonstrates that the three primary speakers are pursuing different frames—that is, they have different purposes in the conversation—and that they have different styles of disagreeing. The Greek man disagrees directly; the Greek woman briefly agrees before going on to disagree; the American woman disagrees indirectly. Analysis of other, briefer excerpts of casual conversation reveals that lin- guistic marfars of solidarity occur at points of disagreement. These markers are (1) first name or figurative kinship term, often in diminutive form, and (2) personal analogy. Finally, two linguistic markers frequently occur at points of disagreement: (1) the particle «IIµÂ» and (2) what we call "ad- versative imperatives." Thh discussion furthers our understanding of the relationship between power and solidarity in conversation in general, and in Modern Greek conversation in particular.

A Double Imagination: Memory and Education in Cyprus

Abstract: A primary objective of the Greek Cypriot educational system since 1974 has been to educate the new generation of Greek Cypriots about the part of the island that is occupied by Turkey and instill the desire for a reunification of the island. The phrase "I don't forget and I struggle" on posters hanging in classrooms has been central in this pedagogical endeavor. Educational systems have always played key roles in nationalist struggles. However, the study of nationalism in Cyprus has mostly focused on the conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, paying attention to the negative expressions of national- ism, while ignoring the positive desires inherent in the imagination generated by nationalism. A critical discourse analysis of data collected from a high school ethnography shows that interpretations of the above quoted phrase reflect double imaginations: on the one hand, the desire for reunification and, on the other hand, a nostalgia for the "fighting spirit" that characterized previous nationalist struggles which are no longer compatible with the current efforts to solve the Cyprus problem.

Greek National Identity: Religious Minorities, Rights, and European Norms

Abstract: The process of Greece's Europeanization, evident in its membership in the European Community and its adherence to the regional human rights instrument, is impeded by its deviance from European norms. This is particularly striking in the area of religious freedom, where Greece, in violation of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, restricts the rights of religious minorities. The constitutional prohibition of proselytism and a host of administrative, legislative, and judicial acts severely limit religious practice, especially that of Jehovah's Witnesses and Evangelicals. The difficulty Greece confronts in implementing religious freedom stems from its conception of Greekness, which is understood as an organic whole in which Greek Orthodoxy, the ethnos, and the state are a unity. This is buttressed, in turn, by a judicial philosophy of legal positivism. Violations of religious rights are dramatic; in addition, the ideological and legal foundations exist for potential restrictions of numerous individual rights. If Greece is to integrate into the European Community, a transformation of the notion of Greekness is essential.

From Rum Millet to Greek Nation: Enlightenment, Secularization, and National Identity in Ottoman Balkan Society, 1453-1821

Abstract: In order to understand the Enlightenment's impact on Ottoman Balkan society, we must consider the relationship between class position and ethnicity. In the pre-1820s Ottoman Balkans, most of the urban strata, mercantile groups, and religious and secular elites were either ethnic Greeks or acculturated into the Greek ethnie. Both the peasantry and the literate and urban Greek-Orthodox groups were \"Greek\" in the sense of being Orthodox. Millenarianism and Orthodox universalism were both common among the Ottoman Orthodox Christians. After 1750, the influence of the Western Enlightenment led to secularization, liberalism, and an undermining of the religious world view of the Eastern Church. With the French Revolution, this trend intensified. Greek-Orthodox intellectuals reconceptualized the Orthodox Rum millet. They argued for a new, secular \"Hellenic\" national identity. Still, their visions of a future state included all Balkan Orthodox Christians.

The Ideological Context of the Search for Continuities in Greek Culture

Abstract: Very few people are able to write about modern Greek rural culture without referring in some way to ancient Greek culture. The ritual practices of contemporary rural Greece, for example, are often dealt with as if they simply provided a means to learn more about the religious life of ancient Greece. Modern May Day customs evoke \"the ancient festival of Adonis;\"1 a modern carnival rite is characterized as \"an example of the dromena of ancient Dionysiac worship;\"2 and the Anastenarides, a religious group in northern Greece, whose members enter a state of trance and dance when possessed by Saint Constantine, are referred to as \"a Bacchic thiasos.\"3 In fact, it often seems that in such cases the real topic under consideration is classical antiquity and not the lives of the people of rural Greece. In this paper I will analyze the discourse with which a variety of scholars, classicists and folklorists, Greeks and foreigners, discuss the folklore, ritual, and religion of contemporary rural Greece. I will argue that this discourse, which is based on the outdated anthropological paradigm of cultural evolution with its attendant doctrines of cultural survivals and cultural continuities, identifies certain elements of modern Greek rural culture as fossilized relics of ancient Greek culture. In this way it reduces the contemporary culture of the people of rural Greece to an exotic anachronism. It creates a distance between them and the scholars studying them by assigning them to a different time, a time long past. I also suggest that in order to understand the power of this discourse, its attractiveness to scholars and the harmful effects it has on the people of rural Greece who are its