Imaging Suli : Interactions between Philhellenic Ideas and Greek Identity Discourse (2015. 221 S. 230 mm)

The legends of Suli have played an important role in Greek national discourse. This study follows the threads of the legend formed by Greek intellectuals and the European Philhellenes. It investigates the interactions between various images of Suli and analyzes its functioning in different European cultures. Suli is a mountainous land in Epirus in northwestern Greece. This book collates its Greek 19th-century vision with the European view in the works of English, French, Italian, and Polish philhellenes. Investigating the interactions between various images of Suli, it analyses its functioning in different European cultures: the first historical mentions of Suli, the role of Byron's poems in shaping its image, Greek folk songs about female fighters from Suli, and the mass suicide of Suliote women known as the Dance of Zalongo. Especially the legend about the bravery of the Suliotes has been important in Greek national discourse and the study follows the threads of the legend formed by Greek intellectuals and the European Philhellenes. Contents: First historians and travelers to Suli - Between Westernization and Orientalism: Byron's discovery of Suli - Climbing at Suli and Romantic Experience - Suliote women fighters in Greek folk songs: Greece and Philhellenic Europe - The Dance of Zalongo as a theme of the Romantic imagination - Suli as a founding myth. Ewa Róza Janion holds a PhD in cultural studies from the University of Warsaw, Poland. Her main intellectual interests revolve around the questions of national identity and gender representations. She works within the fields of Hellenic and Mediterranean studies, focusing on the modern and contemporary literature.