Representations of Late-Ottoman Thessaloniki in Contemporary Greek Literature

TY - ABST

T1 - Representations of Late-Ottoman Thessaloniki in Contemporary Greek Literature

AU - Willert, Trine Stauning

N1 - Conference code: 5

PY - 2014/10/2

Y1 - 2014/10/2

N2 - In the late 1990s and 2000s there was an increasing historiographic as well as cultural interest in more nuanced accounts of Greek and Christian experiences during the Ottoman period. The increasing contemporary cultural plurality in Greece, that was a consequence of globalization processes and immigration, can have spurred the curiosity towards earlier experiences of multifaceted cultural coexistence. The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s brought back memories of the pre-WWI ‘Ottoman Balkans’ and now, twenty years later, the centenaries of the Balkan Wars have once again triggered a plethora of historiographic and cultural publications and events interpreting the transitions from the multicultural imperial society to more or less homogenous national societies. Up through the 2000s Thessaloniki has been a focal point in reconsidering a multicultural past that confronts national narratives of ethnic and religious homogeneity. The historiographic interest, along with an opening towards Turkish cultural products, in particular soap operas, has been followed up by a wave of popular Greek historical novels situated in the Ottoman period (i.e. Kalpouzos, Zourgos, Themelis, Kakouri and others). The current popular novels differ from earlier experimental ‘postmodern’ novels of the ‘historiographic metafiction’ (Kosmas 2002, Katsan 2013) through their said intention to ‘tell the truth’, even when this is ‘the truth of others’ (Themelis 2008). As part of a larger research project on popular historical fiction on the Ottoman period, this paper will present an analysis of representations of late Ottoman Thessaloniki in a number of Greek novels published between 2005 and 2012. The paper examines the ways in which these novels represent cross-cultural and cross-religious relations in pre-national Thessaloniki and it will be discussed how the contemporary fiction differs from earlier ‘nationalist’ Greek fiction about the Ottoman period. A significant characteristic of the contemporary novels is the explicit reference to extensive historiographic secondary literature and in some cases even historical sources. What does this eagerness to prove the truthfulness of the historical context say about the authors’ intentions? These novelists have apparently become part of revisionist trends in history writing, but what consequences does that have for the literary depiction of characters and for the perceptions of cultural, linguistic and religious belonging in the novels?

AB - In the late 1990s and 2000s there was an increasing historiographic as well as cultural interest in more nuanced accounts of Greek and Christian experiences during the Ottoman period. The increasing contemporary cultural plurality in Greece, that was a consequence of globalization processes and immigration, can have spurred the curiosity towards earlier experiences of multifaceted cultural coexistence. The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s brought back memories of the pre-WWI ‘Ottoman Balkans’ and now, twenty years later, the centenaries of the Balkan Wars have once again triggered a plethora of historiographic and cultural publications and events interpreting the transitions from the multicultural imperial society to more or less homogenous national societies. Up through the 2000s Thessaloniki has been a focal point in reconsidering a multicultural past that confronts national narratives of ethnic and religious homogeneity. The historiographic interest, along with an opening towards Turkish cultural products, in particular soap operas, has been followed up by a wave of popular Greek historical novels situated in the Ottoman period (i.e. Kalpouzos, Zourgos, Themelis, Kakouri and others). The current popular novels differ from earlier experimental ‘postmodern’ novels of the ‘historiographic metafiction’ (Kosmas 2002, Katsan 2013) through their said intention to ‘tell the truth’, even when this is ‘the truth of others’ (Themelis 2008). As part of a larger research project on popular historical fiction on the Ottoman period, this paper will present an analysis of representations of late Ottoman Thessaloniki in a number of Greek novels published between 2005 and 2012. The paper examines the ways in which these novels represent cross-cultural and cross-religious relations in pre-national Thessaloniki and it will be discussed how the contemporary fiction differs from earlier ‘nationalist’ Greek fiction about the Ottoman period. A significant characteristic of the contemporary novels is the explicit reference to extensive historiographic secondary literature and in some cases even historical sources. What does this eagerness to prove the truthfulness of the historical context say about the authors’ intentions? These novelists have apparently become part of revisionist trends in history writing, but what consequences does that have for the literary depiction of characters and for the perceptions of cultural, linguistic and religious belonging in the novels?

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - European Congress of Modern Greek Studies

Y2 - 2 October 2014 through 5 October 2014

ER -