Greek National Identity in Talk. The rhetorical articulation of an ideological dilemma. Lancaster

358 Pages·2009·2.67 MB·English

by  Nikos Bozatzis

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY
PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Greek National Identity in Talk:
The rhetorical articulation of an ideological dilemma

by

Nikolaos Bozatzis

B.A., Philosophy, Paedagogics & Psychology
(Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
M.Sc., Research Methods in Psychology (Lancaster University)

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of Ph.D.

March 1999
The present research was funded by a grant and a teaching studentship awarded by the
Lancaster University Psychology Department and an ESRC (fees only) grant (Award No
R00429614147). The field research in Brussels was partly subsidised through an ERASMUS
exchange scheme between the Psychology Department of Lancaster University and the
Department of Experimental Psychology of the University of Louvain la Neuve.

This thesis records research undertaken at the Department of
Psychology of the University of Lancaster. The work contained
herein is wholly original, excepting when due reference is made.
Για τους γονείς μου…..
"The question is", said Alice,
"whether you can make words mean so many different things".
"The question is", said Humpty Dumpty,
"which is to be master -that's all".

Lewis Carroll

CONTENTS

CONTENTS i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi

ABSTRACT 1
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 2

CHAPTER ONE 8
MODERN GREECE AND THE WEST: OVERVIEW OF AN AMBIVALENT AFFAIR

1. Modern Greece and the West: Political dependency and discontent 9
1.1. From the war of independence (1821-27) to the treaty of Lausanne (1923) 9
1.2. From the Greek civil war (1945-49) to the rise of the Macedonian question 15
2. Modern Greek nationalism and nation building 22
2.1. The rise of modern Greek nationalism: An Enlightened project 22
2.2. Greek nation building: The doctrine of national unity 26
3. Modern Greece: In the margins of the West and East 31
3.1. Inconsummate Westernisation and the missionary aspect of the Great Idea 31
3.2. The language question and the ideological construct of Greekness 35
4. Modern Greece in the looking glass: The politics of ambivalence 44
4.1. The politics of binary oppositions:
The Hellenic ideal vs. the modern Greek 44
4.2. The cultural ambivalence of modern Greek national identity:
The Hellenic / Romeic dilemma 48
4.3. The Hellenic / Romeic dilemma and
the cultural reproduction of Western hegemony 52
4.4. From symbolic to conversational pragmatics and back again 61

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CHAPTER TWO 64
BANAL NATIONALISM AND THE IDEOLOGICAL DILEMMA OF PREJUDICE

1. Introduction 65
2. The thesis of Banal Nationalism 67
2.1. "Hot" and "Banal" nationalism 67
2.2. The dialectics of forgetting and remembering and
the casual flagging of the national homeland 71
2.3. National identity as a form of life 75
2.4. Imagining the national "Us", "Them" and the nation in a world of nations 78
3. Prejudice vs. rationality: An (everyday) dilemma of liberal ideology 84
3.1. Tracing the semantic transformations of "prejudice" 84
3.2. Claiming a rational profile: prejudice and tolerance in lay discourse 88
4. Banal Nationalism and the case of modern Greek nationalism and national identity 95
4.1. Banal Nationalism and its relevance for a study of
modern Greek nationalism and national identity 95
4.2. National distinctiveness and cultural ambivalence 98
4.3. Western "us" and non-Western "them": Cultural stereotypes
and their uses 100
4.4. Towards a reconsideration of the dialectic between
universalism / internationalism and particularism / nationalism 105

CHAPTER THREE 108
THE NATIONAL, THE INTERNATIONAL AND
A FURTHER DILEMMA IN THE PROBLEMATIC OF PREJUDICE

1. Introduction 109
2. National, international sentiments and their direction 110
3. The realm of international allegiances: Cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitans 112
3.1. Cosmopolitanism as an Enlightenment Ideal 112
3.2. Cosmopolitans in contemporary cosmopolitania 114
4. Xenomania as an ideological charge and concern in modern Greek culture 121
4.1. The charge of mimicry and xenomania
ii
in contemporary intellectual debates 123
4.2. Xenomania and the politics of cultural distinction 126
4.3. Modern Greek xenomania as a cultural "fact" 132
5. Blueprinting a rhetorical dilemma 135

CHAPTER FOUR 137
CONSTRUCTING THE ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK:
DISCOURSE(S) AND DISCURSIVE PRACTICES

1. Introduction 138
2. Analysis of discourse(s): Texts, ideology and power 142
2.1. Discourse analysis and discourse definition 142
2.2. Criteria for distinguishing discourses 144
2.3. Analysis of discourse(s) and research on the rhetorical
deployment of Greek national identity 147
3. Discourse as social practice: Discourse analysis 151
3.1. The study of discourse as social practice: Function, variation
and construction 151
3.2. Interpretative repertoires: Abstractions from practices in context 158
3.3. From discourse analytic theory to discourse analytic practice 162
3.4. Discourse as social practice and research on the rhetorical
deployment of Greek national identity 165
4. Discursive Psychology: The Discursive Action Model 168
4.1. Action, fact and interest and accountability 168
4.2. Discourses and rhetorical organisation 175
4.3. The Discursive Action Model and research on the rhetorical
deployment of Greek national identity 177

CHAPTER FIVE 182
TALKING ABOUT ENGLISH ORGANISATION AND GREEK DISORGANISATION:
CULTURAL STEREOTYPES IN ACTION

1. Introduction 183
1.1. Participants and research procedure 184
iii
1.2. Backstage to the analysis proper 185
1.3. The research frame and rhetorical consequences 187
2. Accounting for experiences of English organisation 191
2.1. English organisation as an advantageous state of affairs 193
2.2. Criticising English organisation 205
2.2.1. English organisation as deficient 205
2.2.2. English organisation as a flaw 213
2.2.3. English organisation as an appearance 225
3. Discourse analysing Greek talk on English organisation / Greek disorganisation 237
3.1. Organisation / disorganisation as flexible discursive resources 237
3.2. Cultural stereotypes and identity concerns: Interactional / rhetorical uses 238
3.3. Cultural stereotypes and identity concerns: Symbolic / rhetorical uses 240

CHAPTER SIX 246
TALKING ABOUT GREEK NATIONAL CHARACTER:
ORIENTAL SELF-INTERESTNESS OR OCCIDENTAL INDIVIDUALISM ?

1. Introduction 247
1.1. Participants and research procedure 247
1.2. Backstage to the analysis proper 249
1.3. The research frame and the course of the analysis 250
2. Criticising Greek self-interestness 252
2.1. Criticising the Greek lack of civility 252
2.2. Criticising the Greek attitude to work 262
2.3. Criticising the Greek politics and politicians 269
3. Praising Greek individualism 282
3.1.Greek institutional disorganisation vs.the virtues
of Greek national character 282
3.2. Greek politics / politicians vs. the virtues
of Greek national character 291
3.3. European Others' national character(s) vs. the virtues
of Greek national character 301
4. Conversational and symbolic uses of cultural stereotypes of
modern Greek character: Towards an analytic convergence? 313
iv
REFLECTIONS ON GREEK NATIONAL IDENTITY IN TALK 317

REFERENCES 329

APPENDICES 351
Appendix A: The Helleno-Romeic Dilemma: A list of contrasts 352
Appendix B: Transcription Notation 355
Appendix C: Participants - Study One 356
Appendix D: Discussion Sheet for Study One 358
Appendix E: Interviewees - Study Two 360
Appendix F: Discussion Sheet for Study Two 362
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