What was the perception of Greece in Europe during the later nineteenth century, when the attraction of romantic philhellenism had waned? This volume focuses on the reception of medieval and modern Greece in the European press, rigorously analysing journals and newspapers published in England, France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands. The essays here suggest that reactions to the Greek state's progress and irredentist desires were followed among the European intelligentsia. Concurrently, new scholarship on the historical development of the Greek language and vernacular literature enhanced the image of medieval and modern Greece. This volume's contributors consider the press's role in this Europe-wide exchange of ideas, explore the links between romantic and late philhellenism and highlight the scholarly nature of the latter. Moreover, they highlight the human aspects of cultural transfers by focusing on networks of mediators, publishers and scholarly collaborators. This context enhances our understanding of both the creation of Hellenic studies and the complex formation of the modern Greek identity.

Georgia Gotsi is Associate Professor of Modern Greek and Comparative Literature at the University of Patras, Greece. She has held visiting posts at Brown University and fellowships at the Remarque Institute of New York University, and at Harvard University's Centre for Hellenic Studies in Nafplion. Her research interests focus on the reception and translation of European and North American literatures in Greece, the cultural biography of antiquities, the Jewish as well as the immigrant presence in contemporary Greek fiction. She is the author of two books: Life in the Capital: Topics in Late Nineteenth Century Prose Fiction (Athens 2004, in Greek) and 'The Internationalization of Imagination': Relations of Greek and Foreign Literatures in the Nineteenth Century (Athens 2010, in Greek). She has also published a number of articles in Greek, British and American scholarly journals on nineteenth-century Greek prose fiction and popular fiction, on Anglo-Greek cultural relations, and on literary uses of material antiquities.

Despina Provata is Professor of History of French Civilization at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, specialising in the cultural transfers between France and Greece in the nineteenth century. She has participated in numerous research programmes on translation history and cultural transfers through the press while she was the scientific supervisor of a research project on Victor Hugo in the Greek world. She has published monographs, co-edited collective volumes, chapters for books and several scientific articles on her research interests that include comparative literature, the history of ideas, cultural transfers between France and Greece, translation studies, the history of the French language and the Greek francophone press. Main publications: Etienne-Marin Bailly. A Saint-Simonian in revolutionary Greece (Athens, 2008, in Greek); La culture dans l’enseignement du français. Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde, 60/61 (December 2018, editor).

Georgia Gotsi & Despina Provata, Introduction: Greece in the European press in the second half of the nineteenth century: language, culture, identity
1. Stessi Athini, Marinos Papadopoulos Vretos: 'Le trait d'union entre Paris et Athènes, l'intermédiaire naturel entre la Grèce et les Philhellènes des bords de la Seine' (Victor Fournel, L'Espérance, 1858)
2. Ourania Polycandrioti, Greek identities and French politics in the Revue des Deux Mondes (1846-1900)
3. Alexandros Katsigiannis, The emergence of Modern Greek Studies in late nineteenth-century France and England
4. Despina Provata, 'La nouvelle Aspasie', La Nouvelle revue (1879-1899) et la Grèce moderne
5. Georgia Gotsi, Medieval and Modern Greece in the Academy
6. Francesco Scalora, Modern Greek Studies in Italy (1866-1897): Philhellenic revival and classical tradition through the lens of the Nuova Antologia
7. Lambros Varelas, An interesting utopian undertaking: The Philhellenic Society of Amsterdam and the journal ?????/Hellas (Leiden, 1889-1897)
8. Mariliza Mitsou, Les études de grec moderne en Allemagne et la revue Byzantinische Zeitschrift (1892-1909)
9. Alceste Sofou, La Grèce et l'Europe à travers l'insurrection crétoise de 1895-1897, reflétées dans la presse de l'époque
Index