Greek Modernity and Europe: An Ambivalent Relationship

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Modern Greek identity has not been solely the result of an internal ‘creation’ process. It has been defined and elaborated in the wider European context, drawing links between Greek modernity and classical antiquity. The narratives of modern Greek identity have been largely articulated in and then imported from western Europe as ‘components of a broader representation of the sources of European civilization’ (Tsoukalas 2002: 75). The word ‘modern’1 was automatically connected with the creation of the Greek state, that gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century — consolidating the creation of the new entity while affirming a link of continuity with the Hellenic ancestral past. Yet, can Greek society and the ‘modern’ Greek state be considered modern? The answer is not straightforward.