Gender and nationalism in the Hellenic world, 1836-1897

Thesis

This thesis is not the history of Greek feminism as such, but rather a history of gender in the Greek context, of which feminist consciousness was just one component. Its chapters discuss the way in which gender, the cultural roles and behaviour prescribed for male and female members of the Hellenic nation by Hellenic society from 1836 and 1897, helped this population and particularly Hellenic women (Hellenides), to acquire a certain sense of national identity. The central question and organising principle of this thesis is the way in which women developed a certain sense of political and national identity by exploiting the overriding conceptions of the national idea in Greece.

The Greek constitution of 1844 conferred voting rights on all male citizens, giving legal sanction to a transformation that had occurred gradually: that from Christian soldier to obedient citizen. Excluded from those spheres traditionally defined as public - military service, public education, and legislation - women deconstructed this patriarchal frame of reference by composing new symbols and language, seeking legitimacy from sources of power which they had previously denied to themselves. This thesis charts these developments, making careful distinctions between the state that provided the government and administered the territory that was Greece, and the nation, namely the ethnic group that identified itself as Hellene regardless of its state of domicile. Concerned above all with the national identity which women created for themselves, this thesis does not offer a detailed explosion of the Megale Idea (Great Idea), a doctrine advocating the liberation and unification of the entire Hellenic genos (the ecumenical community of Balkan Orthodoxy as it existed under the Ottoman Empire) and the establishment of a great Greek state in the lands that had once belonged to the Byzantine Empire. Instead, it examines the cultural significance of the Megale Idea, and its influence on how women began to think about themselves, gender, politics and daily life.

Authors: Tzanakē, D

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Hellenic world; 19th century; nineteenth century; nationalism; gender and nationalism; Greece; Sex role
• Subjects: Nationalism -- Greece -- History; Sex role -- Greece -- History; Greece -- History -- 19th century