1st Edition
Demon Entrepreneurs: Refashioning the ‘Greek Genius’ in Modern Times
The ‘Greek genius’ appears as the combination of two stereotypes with a long pedigree: Homer’s ingenious Odysseus, triumphing with tricks over his foes, and Virgil’s ‘deceitful Odysseus’, the impostor Greek. Adamantios Korais, the leading scholar who almost single-handedly refashioned the Greek nation, fully appreciated the importance of Greek shipping and commerce, and the wealth they generated for the spread of Enlightenment ideas and the quest for political emancipation in the Greek lands.
In this context, the ‘genius’ and the consequent economic success have long been considered the essential prerequisites for the spreading of Greek education and, ultimately, national revival. Reversely, Greek education and consciousness-building via economic success are taken as proof of the immanent ‘Greek genius’. As a popular myth of redemption, this stereotype persists in a country of rather limited resources and uncertain prospects. This volume seeks to identify both the content and the ways that the ‘Greek genius’ has long worked at the political, social and economic level. Based on a collective research project, it offers an original contribution to the broader discussion generated by the current Greek national bicentenary.
This book will appeal to all those interested in the idea of the Greek 'national character’ as well as international perceptions of Greek culture, education, and society during the modern era.
Greece, a Nation of Commercial and other Geniuses in a State Fit for Petty Traders and Poor Devils: An Introduction
Basil. C. Gounaris https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1425-5149
Part I Beware of the Greeks: From Antiquity to Re-Discovery
- Greek Subtlety and Ingenuity: Anglo-French Variations on a Classical Theme
- Greeks on Seventeenth Century Dutch Ships and Print(s)
- Representations of Greek Entrepreneurship between Projection and Reception in Eighteenth-Century German Sources.
- Pious and Heroic Contrabands: The Greek Character in Russian Perspective (c.1800)
- Nineteenth Century British Travellers’ View of the Greek Character
- The ‘Greek Genius’ in the Service of the Nation: The Greek Enlightenment
- Explaining, Enhancing, Disseminating the ‘Greek Genius’ through Textbooks (c.1870-1980)
- Profiling the ‘Greek Genius’: Nineteenth Century Biographies of Illustrious Greeks
- Ingenious Emigrants
- Orthodox Christian Ambiguities: The ‘Greek Genius’ between Achievements and Morals
- Class or Inherent Vice? The Marxist View of the ‘Greek Genius’
- Genius and Demonic Routes in Modern Greek Prose (c. 1880-1940)
- Demon Entrepreneurs and Poor Devils in Post World War II Greek Cinema
- Aspects of Ingenuity in Greek Popular Culture
- Indigenous and Incoming Demon Businessmen during Trikoupis’ Modernising Era
- Perceptions of the ‘Greek Genius’ during the Interwar Economic Crisis
- A ‘Daimonion’ for Times of Recovery and Growth, 1945-67
- ‘Greek Genius’ vs the Troika in the 2010s
Evangelos Sakkas https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9251-4022
Constantine Theodoridis https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4621-1244
Ioannis Zelepos
Tatiana Triantafyllidou https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3509-1881
Alexis Dassios https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4093-8832
Part II A Nation of Geniuses
Kostas Sarris https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6330-4517
Vasileios Foukas https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6078-3340
Sotiroula Vasileiou https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6277-0068
Kostantinos Diogos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4952-1507
Part III Exorcising the Greek Daimonion
Vasilios N. Makrides https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3783-2655
Loukianos Hassiotis https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5644-7202
Mairi Mike https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5538-1504
Giorgos Andritsos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0225-7075
Vassilis Vamvakas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7741-9235
Part IV A Genius for all Times
Elpida K. Vogli https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4248-2231
Eleftheria Manta https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4813-4580
Ioannis D. Stefanidis https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2832-5443
Panagiotis Paschalidis https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4305-3279
Biography
Basil C. Gounaris (DPhil Oxon) is Professor of Modern History at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and vice-chair (2021-23) of the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe (Council of Europe). His books include Steam over Macedonia: Socio-Economic Change and the Railway Factor, Boulder & New York: East European Monographs, 1993; The Balkans of the Greeks: From the Enlightenment to World War I (in Greek), Thessaloniki: Epikentro, 2007; ‘See how the Gods Favour Sacrilege’: English Views and Politics on Candia under Siege (1645-1669), Athens: NRF, 2012; ‘Today is not like yesteryear’: Greek Armatole-Klephts and Albanian Rebels (in Greek), Athens: NRF, 2019.
Ioannis D. Stefanidis (PhD LSE) is Professor in Diplomatic History, Department of International Studies, School of Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His publications include: Isle of Discord: Nationalism, Imperialism and the Making of the Cyprus Question (London and New York, 1999); Stirring the Greek Nation: Political Culture, Irredentism and Anti-Americanism in Post-War Greece, 1945-67 (Aldershot, 2007); Substitute for Power: British Propaganda to the Balkans, 1939-1944 (Aldershot, 2012), ‘America’s Projection and Democracy Promotion: The ‘Voice of America’, Greece under the Colonels and Ceauşescu’s Romania’, Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, xxxii, no.33 (2016/17), 167-237.