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- Volume 3, Issue 1, 2017
Journal of Greek Media & Culture - Volume 3, Issue 1, 2017
Volume 3, Issue 1, 2017
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Caryatids lost and regained: Rebranding the classical body in contemporary Greece
More LessAbstractThis article examines patterns of reception through which a particular type of classical sculpture – the Caryatid – has been accepted into the cultural life of contemporary Greece. Loved by neoclassical architecture, though also prominent in Modern Greek design, as well as contemporary literature, the Caryatid serves alongside a limited stock of other classical monuments as a logo for the country and the Greeks at large, especially when referring to their relations with their fellow Europeans. In contemporary Greek culture, Caryatids are deployed as symbols of Greekness as well as a means to achieve the nation’s cultural emancipation against the supremacy of western, globalized modernity. Often derided as mere symptoms of colonial mimicry, through their inherent qualities of parody and subversiveness, such uses may sometimes prove unexpectedly successful in undermining modernity and its templates.
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Beware of Greeks bearing gifts: Metaphors as viruses in discourses on the Greek crisis
More LessAbstractDuring negotiations in February 2015 over the Greek debt crisis, a German official was widely quoted referring to the latest Greek offer as a ‘Trojan horse’ designed to sabotage the latest bailout package. The recent economic debacle and the threat of a ‘Grexit’ from the eurozone produced a veritable outbreak of tropes in the classical style: Greece is Europe’s ‘Achilles heel’, its collapse a ‘modern Greek tragedy’, its prospects for recovery ‘Sisyphean’, etc. What are the effects of these classicizing clichés – all of which function, in effect, as Trojan horses – on the debate over European unity and identity, past, present and future? A closer examination of these hellenotropes suggests that they constitute important weapons or antidotes for conceptualizing and, by the same token, quarantining Greece as a form of economic, political and cultural ruin metastasizing within the European body politic. But the effort to ward off the virus of the Greek ruin only helps transmit it. What finally underlies Europe’s resentment of Greece is the anxiety produced by the metaphorical itself: the fear that Greece is either not enough or too much like Europe.
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Roman-alphabeted Greek and transliteration in the digital language practices of Greek secondary school pupils on Facebook
Authors: Christopher Lees, Periklis Politis and Dimitris KoutsogiannisAbstractThis article highlights the uses of Roman-alphabeted Greek as observed in the language practices of fifteen Greek secondary school pupils on their Facebook profiles. We argue that far from the use of Latin alphabet posing a threat to the Greek language, as it is often described, Roman-alphabeted Greek merely forms part of teenagers’ digital communication exchanges. Furthermore, our data point to a clear preference for using the Greek script as opposed to the Latin. In many instances where the Latin alphabet is used, pupils, albeit with gender-related differences, use orthographic transliteration, so as to adhere to standard Greek spelling. At the same time, we draw attention to an emerging trend in alphabet choice, where other languages are transcribed using the Greek script.
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Foreign correspondents in Cyprus: Universal roles and contextualized practices
By Vaia DoudakiAbstractThis study on foreign correspondence in Cyprus explores the profiles and professional values of the correspondents working on the island, taking into consideration the interplay of forces operative at the level of the foreign correspondents’ professional culture, the international media environment and the specific context of the country the correspondents report from and for. The study shows that the foreign correspondents working in Cyprus largely align with their colleagues in other countries, as it concerns the self-perception of their main professional roles, values and selection criteria. At the same time, these roles, values and tasks take on certain special traits, accommodated both in the specificities of the foreign correspondent’s job and the Cypriot environment. This contextualized examination points to the complexity not only of studying but also of defining foreign correspondence in ever-changing environments and sheds some light on the ways in which news is built as a product of its time and its professional, cultural and social milieu.
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Gender and sexuality in three late-1980s Greek lifestyle magazines: Playboy, Status and Click
More LessAbstractThis article examines the representational politics of gender and sexuality in Playboy, Status and Click, three Greek lifestyle magazines of the late 1980s. Despite differences in representation, politics, impact and audience demographics, these magazines’ politics towards gender and sexuality shared noticeable similarities. Challenging the view that lifestyle magazines one-dimensionally advocated patriarchy, the article argues that their positioning towards gender and sexuality varied. It combined the reproduction of patriarchal stereotypes targeting to the objectification of (mainly) female bodies with challenging and often productive views on gender roles. These magazines often dealt with (mainly male) homosexuality through a liberal viewpoint, opening a space for the empowerment and visibility of gay audiences. Finally, in a period of growing fears about HIV/AIDS, these magazines provided valuable information about the epidemic to their readers.
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The Greek Crisis at the movies: Jason Bourne (2016)
By David WillsAbstractThe ongoing economic crisis has afforded film-makers the opportunity for transforming Greece from paradise holiday destination to violent nightmare. Jason Bourne (2016) presents an extended dystopian vision of Athens beset by graffiti, political instability and riots. This short article sets this significant ‘dark tourism’ development in the context of recent English-language commentary about the present situation in Greece – including from travel writing and novels – and the previous representation of Greece in foreign movies.
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Review Essay
More LessAbstractStage of Emergency: Theater and Public Performance Under The Greek Military Dictatorship of 1967–1974, Gonda Van Steen (2015)
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 400 pp., ISBN: 9780198718321, £80
To ‘Provlima Neolaia’. Modernoi Neoi, Paradosi Kai Amfisvitisi Sti Metapolemiki Ellada (1964–1974)/‘Youth as a Problem’. Modern Youths, Tradition and Contestation in Post-War Greece (1964–1974), Kostas Katsapis (2013)
Athens: Aprovleptes Ekdoseis, 607 pp., ISBN: 9789609984737, 18.00€
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Book Review
More LessAbstractOtan Grafei to Molyvi: Politiki Via Kai Mnimi Sti Synchroni Elliniki Kai Italiki Pezografia/Inscribed in Lead: Political Violence and Memory in Contemporary Greek and Italian Prose, Vassiliki Petsa (2016)
Athens: Polis, 387 pp., ISBN: 9789604354979, Paperback, 26.00€
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