The Historical Politics of the Contemporary Greek Society

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the contemporary politics of memory in Greece in the early 2020s. The author analyzes the role and place of various ideological trends in modern Greek social thought, defining them as factors in the development and transformation of memorial culture and the collective historical memory of society. The novelty of the study lies in addressing the current stage in the development of the historical policy of the Greek society in the context of an objective lack of interdisciplinary research. The article is based on the principles of interdisciplinary historiography on memory studies. The author uses the achievements of the memorial turn and intellectual history to analyze Greek politics of historical memory and memorial culture. The article reveals the importance of factors of weak institutionalization of memorial culture in the context of significant politicization and ideologization of historical memory. The article shows that social activists as agents of the politics of memory in modern Greek society make a significant contribution to the development and transformation of memorial culture, the spectrum of memorial practices of Greek intellectuals varies from nationalism to liberalism, the participation of intellectuals in memorial politics impacts the parallel co-development of various competing forms of historical memories and versions of memorial cultures. The research suggests that the role of society in the historical politics of modern Greece will increase, and the intellectual community will remain among the active participants in the collective memorial politics.