Introduction

Abstract

Introduction Gregory Jusdanis Guest Editor This volume explores the topic of minor/minority discourse in the context of modern Greek culture and its discipline modern Greek studies. The questions raised in these texts, however, are not limited to this field since the concerns expressed here are shared by cultural critics working within peripheral subjects of the North American university . Most of the papers in this special issue have been presented at MGSA and MLA panels over the last two years. My article was originally read at the "Modern Greek Studies as Cultural Practice" session in San Francisco (1987) while the texts by Peter Bien, Vassilis Lambropoulos, and Artemis Leontis were given at the panel "Empowering the Minor" in New Orleans (1988). The essays by Margaret Alexiou and Yiorgos Kalogeras have been included because of their direct relevance to the topic at hand. The papers on the whole have been produced by a cooperative network of specialists interested not only in the culture of Greece and the disapora but also, and most importantly, in the theoretical issues of its study. In other words we are concerned as much with the analysis itself and the manner in which it is conducted as with the object of analysis. In attempting to reflect on modern Greek studies as a peripheral discourse a number of the contributors wish to intervene and influence the configuration of the field. Most scholars involved in modern Greek studies recognize that it is in the process of institutionalization within the North American academy. (Echoing the call for specificity in the papers, I will restrict my comments to the North American university without intending to ignore the impressive developments in Europe and Australia.) The field has grown during the last 20 years, having increased in the number of teaching positions and in student enrollment and having expanded the scope of research. Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Volume 8, 1990. 1 2 Gregory Jusdanis The 1988 celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Modern Greek Studies Association gave proof of expansion leading to justifiable satisfaction . But the process of discipline formation and legitimation cannot succeed only with additional professorships and the publication of new books, badly needed though they may be. A reflexivity is required to consider both the nature of the field and its status at the university. As a minor subject (in both senses of the term) modern Greek studies has until recently been co-opted either in the celebration of ethnic diversity or in the translation of a still exotic culture to a western readership. Its discourse and conceptual framework have been borrowed from the traditions of the established, "major" disciplines such as English, French, German, classics, history, and political science. The papers in this collection question the inevitability of this act of cultural translation since it reduces Greek society to a mere reflection of western paradigms. If modern Greek studies wishes to escape the disenfranchised ethnic ghetto, it must develop a theoretical problematic as specifically rooted in Greek culture and history as English, German, and French criticism are in their respective cultural traditions . The texts here do not argue for cultural superiority or isolationism but rather for the formulation of a practice and the invention of a discourse that would allow modern Greek to communicate with other formations, minor or major, on a more equitable basis. The issue is not to become a dominant and celebrated discipline but to exploit the position of geographical, political, and epistemological marginality. To be sure, the peripheral position of modern Greek has enforced upon it an interdisciplinarity which escapes the narrow provincialism of traditional fields. Not having established rigid disciplinary boundaries, it exists as a grid of intersecting epistemic lines, mutually reinforcing each other by sharing the same object of interest. Until recently this network of interdisciplinary reference has been constructed on a framework of concepts borrowed from the established disciplines. In the future, as some papers argue, it would be politically prudent for modern Greek to exchange ideas and learn from the developments in such fields as Afro-American, Chicano, and gender studies. Questions raised and answers proposed in these peripheral areas may usefully be applied to problems encountered in modern...