ΕΞΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΣΜΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ Η ΑΝΑΖΗΤΗΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΕΘΝΙΚΗΣ ΤΑΥΤΟΤΗΤΑΣ ΣΤΟΝ ΤΥΠΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΗ ΛΟΓΟΤΕΧΝΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΟΘΩΝΙΚΗΣ ΠΕΡΙΟΔΟΥ

Abstract

The present article attempts a parallel study of two complementary means of political expression during the ottonian period: literature and the press. Its purpose is to depict the different aspects of the making of a bipolar ethnic identity, dangling between the Greek and the European. The nation’s self­image is largely a reflection of the image that Europe has formed of the nation. Greek society possesses a range of stereotypes concerning Europe: Europe comes in, either as a judge, favourably or unfavourably prepossessed towards Greece and the Greeks, or as a model of social and political order, or as an image of the “non– ethnic”, which enables the nation to boast of its own uniqueness. Since the Greek antiquity constitutes the cradle of both “enlightened Europe” and modern Greece, the nation’s attempt at “exarchaismus”, aims at creating bridges between greekness and europeanisation. Particularly during the first post war years, Greece evaluates its past and present through the filters bequeathed the newly –founded state by the European Enlightenment movement. Consequently, Greece adopts Europe’s depreciation towards Byzantium and keeps its distance from the “Orient” that the Slavs represent, by fear of providing arguments to those who adopt Falmerayer’s theories of the Greeks being the descendants of Slavs. Gradually, however, a new use of the term “Orient”, constitutes a complete inversion of the existing European stereotypes, and serves the purpose of introducing the notion of the several historical missions of hellenismus, inspired by the ideals of national romanticism. The non indigenous Greeks, as well as the Bavarians, are acknowledged to embody the cultural and ideological superiority of the West and are therefore preferred in the manning of the new state. This stirs feelings of bitterness and resentment and a negative image of the West amongst the indigenous Greeks. The conservative profile of greek “indigenism” is enhanced by the pursuit of the “Great Idea” and the belief that there are much more urgent needs than the aesthetic education and moral refinement that Europe stands for. Given that neither the “greekness” nor the European orientation of thenation are adequately proven when they simply concern a limited circle of scholars, scholarship is not a value in itself during the ottonian period. The ottonian society is bequeathed two complementary “ideal types” (in the weberian sense) by the Greek War of Independence. Those are: the “fighting scholar” and the “schooled warrior”. The first term stands for scholars who take an active part in the War and the second for the fighters who are initiated into the ideals of the national revolution, and all the ideological motifs of the modern world. It is important to ensure that the traditional brigands who made the war of independence possible, are acknowledged to embody the “Nation’s soul” and to be the living proof of the nation’s historical continuity. As a rule, the various aspects of European identity are evaluated positively or negatively, depending on how much they serve Adamantios Korais’ idea of the “metakenosis”, in the sense of the repatriation of Greek cultural heritage from Europe. Those customs, ideas or morals which bear no relevance to the Greek heritage are rejected, as well as those whose origins are to be found in a distant pre­ Enlightenment European past.