"Ποιός ασχολείται μωρέ με την Ελλάδα;"

ρωτάνε οι παγκοσμιοποιητές... Τί φαντασίωση κι' αυτή! Νομίζουμε ότι είμαστε το κέντρο του κόσμου και ο Κίσσινγκερ, ο Σόρος, ο Κότς και τ' άλλα παιδιά μας δίνουν κάποια σημασία...

Τότε τι είναι το ακόλουθο συνέδριο στο φημισμένο Princeton; (το υπέδειξε ο maximos στο forum του Ρεσάλτο)

Princeton University
Program in Hellenic Studies

Conference

Against Greek Exceptionalism

February 10, 2007
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103

Exceptionalism: “the belief that something is exceptional in relation to others of the same kind,” OED

Exceptionalism seems to have been the dominant paradigm for Modern Greek Studies. The faces of exceptionalism vary; they can be “positive” – theory of continuity of Greek civilization and the classical undertones of Greece’s unique position in world history – or “negative” – for example post-structuralist readings of Modern Greek literature that discern an unshakable lack, gap, or belatedness with respect to other cultures, thus making Greece the exception to a general rule, or likewise post-colonial/subaltern approaches that dwell on the exceptional character of the margins. In these approaches it is rare that the object – Modern Greek culture – is studied in a truly international comparative perspective which could make precise or belie its exceptional character. In a time when Modern Greek Studies is consistently described as being in “crisis,” the need to go beyond these unreflective exceptionalisms is pressing. The purpose of this conference is to bring together scholars who approach Modern Greek culture – literature, visual arts, cinema, and history – from a perspective of the “relation to others of the same kind,” integrate their objects of inquiry with local and international contexts, and work with an interdisciplinary method. The goal is to see difference without seeking the exception, to document and analyze the particular without feeding parochialism. This conference is a call to integrate firmly the study of Modern Greek literature and culture within the fields of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies as they have developed recently in various parts of the world.