The 'Greece' of Britain and the 'Britain' of Greece: performance, stereotypes, expectations and intermediaries in 'Neohellenic' and Victorian narratives (1864-1881)

The role Western philhellenism played in the production of modern Greek identity has been the object of extensive research. Scholars focused on the importance Hellenic culture acquired in European discourses of modernity and the maintenance of national and imperial self-images in the West. The present book re-conceptualises the historical emergence of such discursive frameworks as ‘gatekeepers’ of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic projects. The specific context it explores is that of Anglo-Greek cultural exchange in the third quarter of the nineteenth century (1864-1881). It is argued that Greece’s ambiguous attitude toward British demands for Greek modernisation, and British frustration originating in modern Greek irredentism and internal disorder, define the frame of resistance. Constant miscommunication between Greeks and Britons made co-operation impossible and assisted in the production of Greek counter-hegemony. The specific path of Greek modernisation, state, and nation-formation was developed in several key political/discursive conflicts around: (i) Crime and disorder, (ii) the rationalisation of historical past, and (iii) the nationalist project of the ‘Great Idea’.