REBc43 Images of the Balkans in Modern Greek Literature

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Petros Marazopoulos, PhD (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Petros Marazopoulos, PhD
Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Erlebachová
Supplier department: Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 8:00–9:40 C42, except Mon 18. 11. to Sun 24. 11.
Prerequisites
(TYP_STUDIA(B) && (!SEMESTR(1))) || TYP_STUDIA(MNDCR)
There are no special requirements for taking the course. The students will work with English translations of texts, therefore knowledge of Greek is not necessary.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course examines representations of the Balkan Other and the Balkans. Using the theoretical tools of Imagology, the aim is to highlight the stereotypical constructions and the main connotations of the term "Balkans" in 19th and 20th century Modern Greek literature.
Focusing mainly on literary texts, but also referring to other types of sources, the course aims to reconstruct the way in which the Balkans were perceived in the Μodern Greek imaginary. Moreover, the process by which the individual stereotypical constructions concerning the Balkan nations led to the identification of the Balkans with the notions of backwardness, anti-Westernism, exoticism and inferiority are discussed. At the same time, the course examines aspects of Greece's self-perception as a European, Western space, imaginatively distanced from the Balkans.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, a student will be able to:
- identify images of the Balkan Other in 19th and 20th century Greek texts
- understand the formation of ethnic stereotypes in literature in relation to historical discourses, memory, politics and ideology
- use the theoretical tools of Imagology and distinguish the differences between 'national stereotypes', 'literary images' and 'literary motifs'.
- summarize the main historical and political events in the Balkan Peninsula of the 19th and 20th century, such as, among others, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the building of the contemporary Balkan states, the period of Balkan socialism, the post-communist era, as well as the historic relations of the Balkan states with European Union
- describe the main aspects of Orientalism and Balkanism, as well as the role of the aforementioned phenomena to the representations of Eastern Europe and the Balkans
Syllabus
  • 1. Imagology - Historical Development of the field - The Other in National Literatures - Literary Images and Literary Stereotypes
  • 2. West Images of the Balkans
  • 3. Orientalism and Balkanism; A short Introduction
  • 4. The Balkan nations in Greek literary texts of the 19th century
  • 5. The Balkan Wars and the Greek National Word. Politics, memory and literature
  • 6.-7. Balkan socialism; Images of the communist regimes in the texts of leftist and right Greek writers. Ideology and national images in literature
  • 8.-9. The post-communist Balkans in Modern Greek thought. Literary and cinema depictions of the contemporary Balkan Other
  • 10. Images of the Balkan Other as an economic migrant in the decade of 1990- Social integration- Social exclusion- Literary representations of the Other with national, ideological and political background
  • 11. National Word and Macedonia- Greek Perceptions regarding the broader Macedonian area
  • 12. Images of the Turks in the Greek Literary texts of the 19th and early 20th century- Ottoman Empire and the formations of the contemporary Balkan states
  • 13.-14. The 'Greek superiority complex' over the Balkan Peninsula and its shaping factors. The national portraits of the Balkan nations in Modern Greek literature
Literature
  • GOLDSWORTHY, Vesna. Inventing Ruritania : the imperialism of the imagination. revised and updated edition. London: Hurst & Company, 2013, xxxi, 302. ISBN 9781849042529. info
  • TODOROVA, Marija Nikolaeva. Imagining the Balkans. Updated edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, xi, 273. ISBN 9780195387865. info
  • Greece and the Balkans : identities, perceptions and cultural encounters since the Enlightenment. Edited by Dīmītrīs Tziovas. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003, viii, 280. ISBN 0754609987. info
  • NORRIS, David A. In the wake of the Balkan myth : questions of identity and modernity. First published. Houndmills: Macmillan Press LTD, 1999, xii, 182. ISBN 9780333751688. info
  • The Balkans and the West : constructing the European other, 1945-2003. Edited by Andrew Hammond. Farnham: Ashgate, 2004, xxiii, 236. ISBN 9780754632344. info
Teaching methods
Lectures, seminars, class discussions, group projects
Assessment methods
Passing the final oral examination (minimum 65%). The exams aim at testing the student's insight into the texts and the thematics discussed during the semester lectures. The exam consists of three questions, one of which is theoretical, whereas the remaining two questions are related to specific texts discussed in the lectures.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2022.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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