Modern Greek Lessons: A Primer in Historical Constructivism

by James D. Faubion

Overview

Through a blend of lively detail and elegant narration, James Faubion immerses us in the cosmopolitan intellectual life of Athens, a centerless city of multiplicities and fragmentations, a city on the "margins of Europe" recovering from the repressive rule of a military junta. Drawing inspiration from Athens and its cultural elite, Faubion explores the meaning of modernity, finding it not in the singular character of "Western civilization" but instead in an increasingly diverse family of practices of reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691000503
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	11/19/1995
Series:	Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

James D. Faubion is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Rice University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface: Terms And Definitions
Introduction For the Time Being: Some Notes on the Manners of Modern Lives	3
Pt. I	Reviewing Athens	21
1	Model Improbabilities: Athens at First Sight	23
2	Remembering and Remodeling: The Metaleptic Metropolis	64
Pt. II	Another Modernity	99
3	Crossing the Threshold: Notes on Conflict at a Certain Greek Airport	101
4	Sovereignty and Its Discontents	122
5	"Everything Is Possible": Notes on the Greek Modern	139
Pt. III	After the Colonels: Projects of Self-Definition and Self-Formation Since 1974	157
6	The Self Made: Developing a Postnational Character	159
7	The Works of Margharita Karapanou: Literature as a Technology of Self-Formation	184
8	Men Are Not Always What They Seem: From Sexual Modernization toward Sexual Modernity	213
Epilogue: After the Present	242
Notes	249
Bibliography	271
Index	289

What People are Saying About This

George Marcus

A skilled and compelling writer in the mode of the civilized sojourner. . . . Faubion deals brilliantly with a wide range of topics from contemporary Greek literature to sexuality.
— George Marcus, Rice University

Paul Rabinow

Modern Greek Lessons seeks to invent a new form for expressing the complexity and ambivalence toward the past, toward Europe, toward the United States, and toward themselves that members of the educated Greek elite struggle with individually and jointly. This is an important contribution from a young scholar who will unquestionably be one of the leading voices of his generation.

From the Publisher

"Modern Greek Lessons seeks to invent a new form for expressing the complexity and ambivalence toward the past, toward Europe, toward the United States, and toward themselves that members of the educated Greek elite struggle with individually and jointly. This is an important contribution from a young scholar who will unquestionably be one of the leading voices of his generation."—Paul Rabinow

"A skilled and compelling writer in the mode of the civilized sojourner. . . . Faubion deals brilliantly with a wide range of topics from contemporary Greek literature to sexuality."—George Marcus, Rice University

Editorial Reviews

"Modern Greek Lessons seeks to invent a new form for expressing the complexity and ambivalence toward the past, toward Europe, toward the United States, and toward themselves that members of the educated Greek elite struggle with individually and jointly. This is an important contribution from a young scholar who will unquestionably be one of the leading voices of his generation."--Paul Rabinow

"A skilled and compelling writer in the mode of the civilized sojourner. . . . Faubion deals brilliantly with a wide range of topics from contemporary Greek literature to sexuality."--George Marcus, Rice University

From the Publisher