Crisis As Narrative, Narrative As History: Stories of the Greek Crisis

The dominant discourse that was propagated by the political establishment and mainstream media in Greece since the outset of the crisis has interpreted the current crisis as a crisis of national identity: the country never managed to reform due to the domination of the traditional political culture over a “modern” one, which is to blame for the failed transition to postwar European modernity. This understanding of national identity as an ongoing conflict between tradition and modernity predates the crisis and has shaped Greek history as much as it has been shaped by it. This paper explores the genealogy of this dualism while also attempting to understand its role in the most recent transformations on the ground, namely the rise of Syriza in power and the ‘refugee’ crisis.