Genres of Recollection: Archival Poetics and Modern Greece

312 Pages·2005·3.184 MB·English

by  Penelope Papailias (auth.)

Genres of Recollection
ANTHROPOLOGY,HISTORY,ANDTHECRITICALIMAGINATIONpublishes works dealing
with theoretical and methodological developments in history, anthropology, and
historical anthropology. Books in the series analyze the ways in which accounts of the
past are produced, circulated, and consumed in an increasingly global marketplace
of commodities, identities, and cultural practices. The series is committed to mak-
ing sense of the form and content of historical imagination across the world, to new
ways of writing history, and to how both these concerns may animate critical cur-
rents in ethnographic method and social theory. The publisher and editors of this
series seek, among other things, to foster work that might broaden dialogue between
anthropologists, historians, and those from other fields who engage with both.
SERIES EDITORS
Ann Stoler, New School for Social Research
John L. Comaroff, University of Chicago and American Bar Foundation
ADDITIONAL TITLES IN THE SERIES
Beyond Memory: The Crimean Tatars’ Deportation and Return, by Greta Lynn Uehling
Genres of Recollection
Archival Poetics and
Modern Greece
PENELOPE PAPAILIAS
GENRESOFRECOLLECTION
© Penelope Papailias,2005.
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2005 by
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Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-4039-6106-8 ISBN 978-1-4039-8146-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403981462
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First edition:February 2005
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of my parents,
John and Mary Jane Papailias
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Transliteration and Translation xi
Prologue xiii
1. Introduction: Taking Testimony, Making Archives 1
2. Collectors of Sources: Local Historiography and the
Possession of the Past 43
3. Witnesses to Witnessing: Records of Research at an
Archive of Refugee Testimony 93
4. Reading (Civil) War, the Historical Novel, and the Left 139
5. America Translated in a Migrant’s Memoirs 179
Epilogue 227
Notes 231
References 273
Index 295
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Acknowledgments
I think I can pinpoint when I began writing this book (though, of course, it was
hardly yet this book). I was still in college, on a trip with my father to his natal
village. We were visiting with my great aunt Yiorgia, who had ushered me into her
living room to show me some old photographs of the family. I spoke to her enthusi-
astically with my little Greek, asking her questions and making observations. She
responded just as enthusiastically. Only later did I realize she was almost deaf. These
are the kinds of fortuitous circumstances in which one takes the first step.
Around the same time, in the Modern Greek Studies program at Harvard, I was
encouraged to view my growing interest in things Greek as an opening to think
about the politics of culture more generally. I am particularly indebted to
Meg Alexiou, Vangelis Calotychos, and Charles Stewart for posing the initial
challenges.
My teachers at Michigan, Brink Messick, Ann Stoler, Bruce Mannheim, Sally
Humphreys, Val Daniel, and Artemis Leontis, in turn, inspired me to undertake a
project at the intersection of anthropology, history, and literary criticism. For those
who know their work, the imprint each has left on this text will be clear. I am espe-
cially grateful to Sally Humphreys for her close readings of early drafts of this man-
uscript and mentoring throughout the writing process.
My cohort in the graduate anthropology program at the University of Michigan
was legendary because of its size, but I like to think for other reasons as well. Without
the endless conversations but also the personal support in dire times, it is hard to
know how this project would have been started, let alone completed. In so many
ways, Rachel Heiman, Laura Kunreuther, Mani Limbert, Charles Lord, Janet
McIntosh, Ellen Moodie, Esra Özyürek, and Karen Strassler created the conditions
of possibility for this book.
A number of institutions and granting agencies provided generous support for my
research and writing, including the Fulbright Program, the Wenner-Gren
Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Phi Beta Kappa Society (Mary Isabella
Sibley Fellowship), and the Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the
University of Michigan.
During the course of my research, I was fortunate to meet numerous people who
graciously agreed to speak with me about their historical practice. I am most thank-
ful to all of them. I am also grateful to the staff at several Greek archives and libraries
for their assistance and willingness to discuss their work with me: especially, the late