Greece in CrisisThe Cultural Politics of Austerity

Since 2010 Greece has been experiencing the longest period of austerity and economic downturn in its recent history. Economic changes may be happening more rapidly and be more visible than the cultural effects of the crisis which are likely to take longer to become visible, however in recent times, both at home and abroad, the Greek arts scene has been discussed mainly in terms of the crisis. While there is no shortage of accounts of Greece's economic crisis by financial and political analysts, the cultural impact of austerity has yet to be properly addressed. This book analyses hitherto uncharted cultural aspects of the Greek economic crisis by exploring the connections between austerity and culture. Covering literary, artistic and visual representations of the crisis, it includes a range of chapters focusing on different aspects of the cultural politics of austerity such as the uses of history and archaeology, the brain drain and the Greek diaspora, Greek cinema, museums, music festivals, street art and literature as well as manifestations of how the crisis has led Greeks to rethink or question cultural discourses and conceptions of identity.

Dimitris Tziovas is Professor of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham. He has served as Director of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham and as Secretary of the European Association of Modern Greek Studies. He is the author of The Other Self: Selfhood and Society in Modern Greek Fiction and editor of Re-imagining the Past: Greek Antiquity and Modern Greek Culture.

List of Illustrations, Tables and Charts Notes on Contributors Introduction by Dimitris Tziovas Part I. Crisis Narratives and Cultural Politics 1. Narratives of the Greek crisis and the politics of the past by Dimitris Tziovas 2. Amphipolitics: archaeological performance and governmentality in Greece under the crisis by Dimitris Plantzos Part II. Crisis Brain Drain and Diaspora 3. Crisis brain drain: short-term pain/long-term gain? By Lois Labrianidis & Manolis Pratsinakis 4. Citizenship and entrepreneurship: Greek America as diaspora at a time of crisis by Yiorgos Anagnostou Part III. Cultural Economies and Institutions 5. The economy and ecology of Greek cinema since the crisis: production, circulation, reception by Lydia Papadimitriou 6. Greek museums in times of crisis by Andromache Gazi 7. Feasts in time of 'plague': festivals of western classical music in Greece during the crisis by Katerina Levidou PART IV. Street Art and Nostalgia 8. Visual encounters with crisis and austerity: reflections on the cultural politics of street art in contemporary Athens by Julia Tulke 9. Nostalgic visions of the Greek countryside in times of crisis: national idyll, personal fulfilment or rescuing the ecosystem by Trine Stauning Willert PART V. Literature and the Discourses of Crisis 10. Undoing his/story: on fathers, domesticity and agency in Petros Markaris' Crisis Trilogy by Patricia Felisa Barbeito 11. The unbearable lightness of crisis: (anti-)utopia and middle voice in Sotiris Dimitriou's Close to the Belly by Maria Boletsi 12. Discourses and counter-discourses of the Greek crisis: a critical linguistic perspective by Dionysis Goutsos and Ourania Hatzidaki Bibliography Index