Philotimo (φιλότιμο), “the friend or love of honor,” became a “corporate brand” developed by Greek business elites, for the Greek diaspora in the United States, explains Professor Georgios ( Yiorgos) Anagnostou, visiting scholar in Greek studies.
The marriage of Greek business elites, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the U.S. government, the visiting scholar suggests, has actively limited discourse and a more pluralistic view of the Greek-American diaspora. The director of Ohio State University’s Modern Greek program will deliver public lectures to Melbourne’s Greek community and the University of Melbourne’s Global Diasporas Program next week.
Anagnostou speaks of the “plurality of diasporas” that constitute the Greek American experience, which does not rely on the normative, mainstream narrative of “success” that underpins much of our history as a diaspora. In his numerous books and essays, the researcher seeks to reveal “plural diasporas” by examining the complexities and “conscious” attempts to erase or recast the past.
The problem of a biologized notion of Greekness
He says a “biological” notion of Greekness has emerged, which concerns him. This racialized notion generates an ersatz narrative that connects “national ideals linked to ancient Greece to the foundations of the American political system, the American dream, heroism and courage, meritocracy and the value of an ethnic community integrated and harmonious in multiculturalism.
“This biologized ‘philotimo discourse’ focuses on projecting the success of Greek migrants and protecting a positive image, so that in a crisis it poses a serious threat to that image.”
In America (and, to some extent, Australia), the Greeks sought to “whiten” themselves. They faced primitive racism in the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan reemerged as an urban movement against Greek and other southern European immigrants. So a concerted effort emerged to make them “American,” which was code for white.
“You saw Greek men shaving their mustaches, trying to assimilate and “teach” their peers how to be “real Americans.” There is a biological element, a racism, inherent to all of this,” he says.
More recently, the Greek financial crisis immediately created racial clichés that Greeks are inferior to the modern Anglo-Germanic world. Atavistic stereotypes of lazy, corrupt and backward Greeks have re-emerged, creating an identity crisis and self-loathing within the diaspora.
The philotimo brand was born out of a “triadic relationship” that limits, or can, undermine secular, “reflexive,” and critical thinking within the Greek-American community, or, more importantly, its self-appointed leadership. Anagnostou says that in Australia, the existence of secular Greek organizations, such as the Melbourne Greek Community, creates a “public sphere” for the exchange of ideas.
“What is refreshing about the Australian Greek community is the existence of a secular community and a secular society that is inclusive and creates a public sphere for the exchange of ideas, a different perspective from the type of reflective community that exists.
The Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, with the acquiescence of Greek-American business elites and the American state, has limited public engagement. By contrast, he says that in Australia, “there are discussions, there is active engagement on certain issues, and for me that is extremely refreshing.”
For 25 years, he has studied how Greek-Americans represent themselves through documentaries, films and literature. “I look at prominent people and how they view their past. What do they often consciously forget, and for what purpose? »
His extensive body of work – books, blogs, magazines and research – focuses on three Greek-American generations from the late 19th century, the 1920s and 1960s. Currently, “1.3 million Americans identify as having Greek heritage and 500,000 are members of the Greek Orthodox Church.”
“My sources are part of an exciting phenomenon in Greek America, where non-academic communities and individuals were making documentaries and creating cultural products.
“These popular ethnographers, without degrees, feminists, artists, transgressive thinkers, many of whom are passionate about history, have documentaries made by businessmen, who believe they have the authority to represent the group.
“I am interested in other resources and how a discourse develops, how individuals deploy it and for what purpose.
He highlights the work of Helen Papanikolas, “a Greek-American ethnic historian, novelist and folklorist” who documented the immigrant experience in Utah and the American West through stories, memoirs, fiction and poetry.
“She addressed indigenous Chicanos and Native Americans and emphasized that we empathize with you as Greek immigrants. “We understand that we have empathy.” His account was as follows: “The indigenous people, we Greeks, also experienced this. »
Then there’s Chicago-raised Presvytera Petrakis, who has written 24 books, fiction, essay collections, memoirs and biographies that “highlight discrimination, violence, discrimination.”
“These people stood up and spoke, addressing their community whenever their community demonstrated racist attitudes. »
“For example, in 1955 in Chicago, when a Greek immigrant met an African-American, they got married and everyone closed the doors to them because they had crossed the racial divide; the Greek community and the African American community have closed the door, so Presvytera Petrakis takes the moral authority to say ‘don’t forget what we went through and how can we be right to reproduce the same racism.’
Anagnostou says there may be similarities with Australia, but “there are significant differences from the United States, different political contexts and histories.”
The problem of the Helladic gaze
Anagnostou speaks of a “Helladic view” of the diaspora engineered by Greece, which “does not reflect reality”.
“We hear in America that we are an extension of Greece and a kind of imagined homogeneity.”
The gaze situates Greece as the center and seeks “to appropriate the diaspora as an extension of Greece and where Hellenism consists solely of seeing the diaspora as a reproduction of Greek culture outside.
“Things like the Church, the love of the patrida (the nation) create a discourse that suggests that we have preserved our traditions more than the Greeks in Greece, but from there the Greeks in Greece view the diaspora as backward.
Even though we can share “some experiences,” Greeks in Greece still approach diasporas in a “stereotypical way with anecdotal caricatures, but in the diaspora we have a space where we can negotiate between two cultures.”
“The Helladic view of the diaspora is that we are deviant, that we are an abomination, a pariah,” says Professor Anagnostou. The reality for Anagnostou is that diverse diasporic cultures emerge in “diasporic networks.”
“The writers, poets and filmmakers of the Greek diaspora produce narratives of identity that are unique and do not conform to the Helladic gaze. »
“Incredibly interesting stories but have nothing to do with Greek national culture. Ultimately, the poet Cavafy was part of the diaspora,” adds Anagnostou.
In Australia we can also add author Christos Tsiolkas, filmmaker Geoge (Milliotis) Miller and many others.
As a member of the diaspora, Professor Anagnostou “feels at home in Australia” only after a week: “I feel part of the diaspora”.
“The conversation we’re having now with a Greek Australian, I can’t have it in Greece, but I can have it in Chicago, New York or Melbourne.”
Professor Georgios (Yiorgos) Anagnostou wrote “Contours of White ethnicity: Popular Ethnography and the Making of Usable Pasts in Greek America” (Ohio University Press, 2009), two collections of poetry, and is co-editor of the volume Comparisons, Encounters, Identities. : Italian and Greek Americans in Conversation, forthcoming from Fordham University Press.
The event,’Professor Georgios (Yiorgos) Anagnostou The cultural future of the diaspora: Greek America, public memory, identity creation will take place on October 6 at 7 p.m. at the Greek Center Lonsdale St.
