Ourselves and Others: The Development of a Greek Macedonian Cultural Identity since 1912

When it was incorporated into the Greek state in 1912, Greek Macedonia constituted a mosaic of populations who spoke different languages and shared different cultures and religions. The Greek state, the local authorities and the local intelligentsia strove to achieve the ethnic and cultural assimilation of all these populations -- in the end, with varying degrees of success. Long the site of fierce nationalist activity, Macedonia is a revealing microcosm of the ethnic divides that resist the homogenizing tendencies of nation-states throughout the world.This timely and interdisciplinary book brings together the work of specialists in various fields to spotlight the cultural processes of assimilation that have taken place in Greek Macedonia since 1912. It sheds new light on the old and complex socio-historical roots of this hotly contested area and of the Balkans in general, and will serve as a model for future studies on nationalism, ethnic identity and cultural heritage.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Peter Mackridge and Eleni Yannakakis, Introduction -- Part One: Disputed Identities: Historical Perspectives -- Basil C. Gounaris, Reassessing Ninety Years of Greek Historiography on the ‘Struggle for Macedonia 1904-1908' -- John S. Koliopoulos, The War over the Identity and Numbers of Greece's Slav Macedonians -- Philip Carabott, The Politics of Integration and Assimilation vis-à-vis the Slavo-Macedonian Minority of Inter-war Greece: From Parliamentary Inertia to Metaxist Repression -- Anthony Bryer, The Rise and Fall of the Macedonian School of Byzantine Art (1910-1962) -- Part Two: The Anthropology of Assimilation -- Anastasia N. Karakasidou, Women of the Family, Women of the Nation: National Enculturation among Slav-speakers in North-West Greece -- Eftihia Voutira, Population Transfers and Resettlement Policies in Inter-War Europe: The Case of Asia Minor Refugees in Macedonia from an International and National Perspective -- Georgios Agelopoulos, From Bulgarievo to Nea Krasia, from ‘Two Settlements' to ‘One Village': Community Formation, Collective Identities and the Role of the Individual -- Janc K. Cowan, Idioms of Belonging: Polyglot Articulations of Local Identity in a Greek Macedonian Town -- Part Three: Creating an Indigenous Literary Tradition -- Peter Mackridge, Cultivating New Lands: The Consolidation of Greek Territorial Gains in Macedonia through Literature, 1912-1940 -- Eleni Yannakakis, Resurrecting Macedonian Culture: Pentzikis's ‘The Dead Man' and ‘The Resurrection' -- Aglaia Kehayia-Lipourli, Creating a Literary Tradition in Salonica: The Magazine ‘Makedonikes Imeres' and ‘Alkiviadis Yannopoulos' -- X. A. Kokolis, Ethnic, National and Cultural Identity in the Prosewriting of Georgios Modis -- Fragiski Abatzopoulou, The Image of the Jew in the Literature of Salonica -- Postscript -- Thanos Veremis, The Revival of the ‘Macedonian' Question, 1991-1995

About the Author :
Peter Mackridge Professor,Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature, University of Oxford Eleni Yannakakis Formerly a Research Officer, Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literature, University of Oxford

Review :
'This is an enlightening book which takes a controversial topic and subjects it to rigorous academic scrutiny. ... One very pleasing feature of the sociological studies included in this volume is that they convey their message without recourse to the off-putting and virtually impenetrable jargon which all too frequently obscures works of this nature.'The Greek Gazette'This book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to a much-debated problem that has affected past and contemporary Balkan (and also European) politics: the 'Macedonian question'. The book offers a coherent and well structured collection of papers addressing the development of a Greek Macedonian cultural identity since 1912 from a historical, anthropological and literary perspective. However, each paper could also stand alone as an independent study that adds to our knowledge of Greek Macedonian society and culture [...] providing the reader with rich and detailed materials as well as with a variety of theoretical ap