Greek Cypriot Narratives of History and Collective Identity: Nationalism as a Contested Process

Abstract

In this article I consider the appeal of "grand" historical narratives of nationalism by focusing on the ways in which history and identity are contested in the context of Greek Cypriot society. I pay particular attention to diverse expressions of nationalism formulated by the state, political parties, and individual social actors. By examining how nationalism is articulated on these different levels, I propose an understanding of the dialectical process between "above" and "below" that accounts for the appeal of specific constructions of nationalism. I investigate this process by looking at how individual social actors discuss the past in ways that blend elements of personal, local, and national political history. Such an approach provides an alternative to theories that hold that nationalism's appeal lies in proposing a new kind of community as the local community collapses under the dislocating impact of the forces of modernity. In contrast, theories of nationalism phrased in terms of broad cultural ontologies are problematic for explaining the presence of multiple models of nationalism within a community, and the ways in which nationalisms can be internally contested, [nationalism, history, identity, narrative, Cyprus]