1 Voulgaris, Y., Η Ελλάδα της Μεταπολίτευσης 1974-1990 (Athens 2001)Google Scholar and Η Μεταπολιτευτική Ελλάδα 1974-2009 (Athens 2013), Kalyvas, S., Pagoulatos, G. and Tsoukas, H. (eds), From Stagnation to Forced Adjustment: Reforms in Greece, 1974-2010 (Oxford 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Avgeridis, M., Gazi, E., and Kornetis, K. (eds), Μεταπολίτευση: Η Ελλάδα στο μεταίχμιο δύο αιώνων (Athens 2015)Google Scholar. In recent novels, Theodoros Grigoriadis has tried to capture the 1980s (Ζωή μεθόρια, Athens 2015, and Το Παρτάλι, Athens 2001) and the period of the crisis (Το μυστικό της Έλλης, Athens 2012), thus fictionalizing the transition from junta to crisis.

2 Panagiotopoulos, V. (ed.), Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού – Η Ελλάδα της ομαλότητας, 1974-2000 (Athens 2003)Google Scholar.

3 Liakos, A. and Kouki, H., ‘Narrating the story of a failed national transition: Discourses on the Greek crisis, 2010–2014’, Historein 15 (2015) 53 Google Scholar.

4 Consumerism is defined here as a cultural ideology highlighting consumption, lifestyle and material culture.

5 This trend might not be particular to Greece and it is likely to have occurred earlier or at the same time in other countries. What could be considered as making the difference in the case of Greece is the rapid pace of change, and this cannot always serve as a reliable measure of comparison due to the differing political and socio-cultural conditions within each country.

6 For a review of some of the discussions, see Katsoulis, I., ‘Η Νεοελληνική κοινωνία: “μεταξύ” εκσυγχρονισμού και παράδοσης’, The Books’ Journal 73 (January 2017) 14–23 Google Scholar.

7 Herzfeld, M., Ours Once More: Folklore, Ideology, and the Making of Modern Greece (New York 1986 [1^st edn 1982]) 20 Google Scholar.

8 Herzfeld, M., Anthropology through the Looking-glass: Critical Ethnography in the Margins of Europe (Cambridge 1987) 95–122 Google Scholar.

9 Diamandouros, N. P., ‘Politics and culture in Greece, 1974–1991’, in Clogg, R. (ed.), Greece, 1981–1989: The Populist Decade (New York 1994) 125 Google Scholar, ‘Cultural dualism and political change in postauthoritarian Greece’, in Estudios = Working papers/Instituto Juan March de Estudios e Investigaciones, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias Sociales 50 (Madrid 1994), available at http://digital.march.es/ceacs-ir/es/fedora/repository/ir%3A3835, and Πολιτισμικός δυισμός και πολιτική αλλαγή στην Ελλάδα της Μεταπολίτευσης (Athens 2000). With reference to PASOK and from a leftist perspective, Euclid Tsakalotos attempts a critique of Diamandouros’ dualism: ‘Modernization and centre-left dilemmas in Greece: The revenge of the underdogs’, GreeSE Paper no 13, Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe, April 2008, available at http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/hellenicObservatory/pdf/GreeSE/GreeSE13.pdf.

10 Nicos P. Mouzelis specifies two distinct types of the underdog culture, the clientelistic, dominant in the pre-junta period, and the populist, dominant in the post-junta period: ‘Greece in the twenty-first century: Institutions and political culture’, in Constas, D. and Stavrou, Th. G. (eds), Greece Prepares for the Twenty-first Century (Washington, DC 1995) 17–34 Google Scholar.

11 Koliopoulos, J. S. and Veremis, Th. M., Modern Greece: A History since 1821 (Oxford 2010)Google Scholar.

12 Th.Veremis, ‘Όταν η κατακερματισμένη κοινωνία συναντά τον λαϊκισμό’, Protagon, 9 December 2011: http://www.protagon.gr/?i=protagon.el.article&id=10772 (accessed 25 May 2016) . See also his lecture ‘The Greek crisis: When the segmentary community meets with populism’ (The Hellenic Centre, London, 1 June 2013: http://www.livemedia.com/video/45135). It is interesting to note that Andreas Papandreou, who spent a number of years teaching in America and Europe, is not included among those whom Veremis calls ‘diaspora statesmen’.

13 It is interesting that Ellinismos (i.e. the Greek nation) is often perceived both in terms of great achievement and bare survival.

14 Diamandouros, N. P., ‘Postscript: Cultural dualism revisited’, in Triandafyllidou, A., Gropas, R. and Kouki, H. (eds), The Greek Crisis and European Modernity (Basingstoke 2013) 208–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 A. Triandafyllidou, R. Gropas, and H, Kouki (eds), The Greek Crisis and European Modernity, 9 and 15.

16 Triandafyllidou, Gropas, and Kouki, 8.

17 On hybridity and a critique of the dualist approach, see Tziovas, D., ‘Beyond the Acropolis: Rethinking Neohellenism’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 19 (2001) 189–220 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Hirschon, R., ‘Cultural mismatches: Greek concepts of time, personal identity and authority in the context of Europe’, in Featherstone, K. (ed.), Europe in Modern Greek History (London 2014) 164–5Google Scholar and Tziovas, D., The Other Self: Selfhood and Society in Modern Greek Fiction (Lanham, MD 2003) 13–29 Google Scholar. On the Greek notion of time, see Ramphos, S., Time Out: Η ελληνική αίσθηση του χρόνου (Athens 2012)Google Scholar.

19 Chakrabarty, D., Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton 2000)Google Scholar.

20 In the South Asian context, the term ‘subaltern’ applies to all groups that are perceived as ‘subordinate’ in terms of class, caste, gender, office or ‘in any other way’. See Spivak, G. C., ‘Can the subaltern speak?’, in Nelson, G. and Grossberg, L. (eds), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (Urbana 1998) 271–313 Google Scholar, Guha, R. and Spivak, G. C., Selected Subaltern Studies (Oxford 1988)Google Scholar, Morton, S., Gayatri Spivak: Ethics, Subalternity and the Critique of Postcolonial Reason (Cambridge 2007) 96–7Google Scholar.

21 Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., and Tiffin, H., Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts (London and New York 2007) 201 Google Scholar.

22 Mavrogordatos, George T. points out that ‘Antivenizelism typically sheltered and expressed the stubborn resistance of a variety of particularisms against the modern, liberal, and national state, which aspired to control, assimilate, neutralize, or even suppress them’: Mavrogordatos, G. T., Stillborn Republic: Social Coalitions and Party Strategies in Greece 1922–1936 (Berkeley 1983) 271 Google Scholar.

23 J. S. Koliopoulos and Th. M. Veremis, Modern Greece: A History since 1821, 1. Nicos Alivizatos claims that during the Greek War of Independence the most conservative strata of Greek society adopted principles contained in the most progressive constitutions in Europe: Alivizatos, N. C., ‘The contribution of modern Greece to today's European identity’, The MGSA Bulletin 35 (2003) 21 Google Scholar.

24 Kalyvas, S. N., Modern Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford 2015) 197 Google Scholar.

25 Perhaps the perception of the state changed with the rise of PASOK to power in 1981, when state mechanisms were taken over by the party: Kostis, K., ‘ Τα κακομαθημένα παιδιά της Ιστορίας’: Η διαμόρφωση του νεοελληνικού κράτους, 18ος–21ος αιώνας (Athens 2013) 812 Google Scholar.

26 The following observation sums up the peculiar role of the state in Greece: ‘The size of the state by conventional metrics is about average for a European country, but its influence on the incomes of private households, and especially of the middle class, is extraordinary. Whereas in northern Europe states typically provide public services for all and a safety net for the most needy, in Greece a major function of the state is to provide, or to support, the incomes of middle-class occupational groups, during their working age’: Doxiadis, A. and Matsaganis, M., National Populism and Xenophobia in Greece (London 2012) 40 Google Scholar: http://counterpoint.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/507_CP_RRadical_Greece_web-1.pdf (accessed 26 July 2016). It is interesting to note that the term used in Greek is ‘κρατικοποιώ’ (bring [an industry] under state ownership) rather than ‘εθνικοποιώ’, the literal equivalent of the English verb ‘to nationalize’.

27 Theodoropoulos, T., Mandravelis, P., Markaris, P., and Papavasileiou, V., Υπό το μηδέν: Tέσσερα σχόλια για την κρίση (Athens 2010) 56 Google Scholar.

28 Clements, B., Nanou, K., and Verney, S., ‘“We no longer love you, but we don't want to leave you”: The eurozone crisis and popular Euroscepticism in Greece’, Journal of European Integration 36 (2014) 263 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Nicolas Demertzis criticizes ‘cultural dualism’ for treating ‘tradition and modernity as two pre-constituted and mutually exclusive rather than inter-constituted and interrelated cultural entities’. Instead, he proposes ‘inverted syncretism’ as ‘a category designed to deal more accurately with the articulation of modernity and tradition in Greek political cultures’ and the ways ‘modernizing patterns lost their original function while traditional ones remained intact or even became rejuvenated’: ‘Greece’, in Eatwell, R. (ed.), European Political Cultures: Conflict or Convergence? (London 1997) 119 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Stefanidis, I. D., Stirring the Greek Nation: Political Culture, Irredentism and Anti-Americanism in Post-War Greece, 1945-1967 (Aldershot 2007) 6–11 Google Scholar.

30 With reference to the Greek Civil War and the return of the repressed left/other, G. T. Mavrogordatos has used the phrase ‘the revenge (revanche) of the vanquished’ to suggest that since 1981 history has been rewritten from the point of view of the defeated during the civil strife: ‘Η “ρεβάνς” των ηττημένων’, To Vima, 17 October 1999, available at http://www.tovima.gr/opinions/article/?aid=115282). Kostis Kornetis also writes about the ‘triumph of the Left in the realm of memory’, and particularly in the area of cinema: ‘From reconciliation to vengeance: The Greek Civil War on screen in Pantelis Voulgaris’ A Soul So Deep and Kostas Charalambous’ Tied Red Thread’, Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies 2 (September 2014) 98.

31 F. Fukuyama, ‘The two Europes’, The American Interest, 8 May 2012: http://www.the-american-interest.com/2012/05/08/the-two-europes/ (accessed 3 April 2016).

32 This process is epitomized to some extent by the album Μικροαστικά (1973) of Loukianos Kilaidonis and Yannis Negrepontis, especially the songs ‘O Yorgos’ and ‘Κolliga yos’.

33 It should be noted that since 1974 cultural associations (πολιτιστικοί/μορφωτικοί σύλλογοι) have mushroomed in Greece and their main aim has been to preserve and promote local distinctiveness and regional culture.

34 The frequent reference to a ‘colony of debt’ to describe the bailout for the Greek economy suggests that the eurozone is seen by many Greeks as a colonizing power.

35 The historian Nicos Svoronos identified resistance, primarily towards foreign intervention, as a constant feature of modern Greek history: Επισκόπηση της νεοελληνικής ιστορίας (Athens 1976) 12 (trans. of Histoire de la Grèce modern, Paris 1953, 2^nd edn 1964).

36 Bhabha, H. K., The Location of Culture (London and New York 1994) 37 Google Scholar.

37 On the politicization of Christian Orthodox discourse following the decision of the Greek government to exclude any reference to religion from identity cards, see Stavrakakis, Y., ‘Religious populism and political culture: The Greek case’, South European Society and Politics 7 (2002) 29–52 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Although Greece elected its first professedly atheist prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, in January 2015, spectacles mixing religious sentiment and patriotic pride continued unabated. In May 2015 the remains of St Barbara, which had been kept in Venice for the last thousand years (a gift from a Byzantine emperor in 1003), were flown to Athens and met with an exuberant welcome from crowds of ordinary people. Something similar occurred two years later with the relics of St Helen, ‘Equal to the Apostles’ and mother of Constantine the Great. The relics arrived in Greece from Venice amid the pomp and splendour reserved for heads of state.

39 Douzinas, C., Philosophy and Resistance in the Crisis (Cambridge 2013) 36 Google Scholar.

40 Douzinas, 38.

41 Liakos, A., Η επιστροφή της κοκκινοσκουφίτσας (Athens 2014) 68–83 Google Scholar.

42 Panagiotopoulos, P. and Vamvakas, V., ‘Acrobats on a rope: Greek society between contemporary European demands and archaic cultural reflexes’, in Temel, Bülent (ed.), The Great Catalyst: European Union Project and Lessons from Greece and Turkey (Lanham 2014) 113–34Google Scholar.

43 Williams, R., Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy, Socialism (London 1989 [1^st edn 1958]) 3–14 Google Scholar.

44 Swingewood, A., Cultural Theory and the Problem of Modernity (London 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Eagleton, T., The Idea of Culture (Oxford 2000) 72 Google Scholar.

46 Vamvakas, V., ‘Αλλαγή. Ατομικισμός και καταναλωτική κουλτούρα’, in Vamvakas, V., Ο λόγος της κρίσης: Πόλωση, βία, αναστοχασμός στην πολιτική και δημοφιλή κουλτούρα (Thessaloniki 2014) 255–66Google Scholar.

47 It is interesting to note that until recently the Greek word for audience/public (κοινό) was hardly ever used in its plural form. Literary awards decided exclusively by the public are also a recent phenomenon in Greece

48 Vrasidas Karalis points out that ‘the dividing line between an artistic production for an educated and sophisticated middle class, or a self-conscious aristocracy, and an entertainment for the masses has not been very clear in post-war Greek history’: ‘In search of Neo-Hellenic culture: Confronting the ambiguities of modernity in an ancient land’, Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture 3 (2012) 138.

49 In March 1976 in the periodical Anti a discussion on ‘What is folk/popular culture (λαϊκός πολιτισμός)’, coordinated by the author Dimitris Hatzis, starts with contributions from scholars and intellectuals. It should be noted that it was in this period that the concept of ‘Greek tradition’ was historicized and its normative conceptualization questioned. It is also significant that the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs designated the academic year 1978–9 the ‘year of Greek tradition’: Karavidas, K., ‘Αναζητήσεις της λαϊκότητας: ιδεολογικές διασταυρώσεις και απομακρύνσεις στο Αντί και τον Πολίτη ’, in Avgeridis, M., Gazi, E., and Kornetis, K. (eds), Μεταπολίτευση: Η Ελλάδα στο μεταίχμιο δύο αιώνων (Athens 2015) 302–16Google Scholar.

50 Koutsikou, D. (ed.), Κάτι το ‘ωραίον’: Μια περιήγηση στη νεοελληνική κακογουστιά (Athens 1984)Google Scholar.

51 Vamvakas and Panagiotopoulos point out that ‘it was in the 1980s that ‘kitsch’ and ‘culture’ became the two oppositional terms corresponding to new, opposed social groups’: Vamvakas, V. and Panagiotopoulos, P. (eds), Η Ελλάδα στη Δεκαετία του ’80: Κοινωνικό, πολιτικό και πολιτισμικό λεξικό (Athens 2010) xvliii Google Scholar.

52 A derogatory term, deriving from the Greek word for ‘dog’, to describe a branch of popular music and refer to cheap or often unlicensed night clubs.

53 See Papadogiannis, N., Militant Around the Clock? Left-Wing Youth Politics, Leisure, and Sexuality in Post-Dictatorship Greece 1974–1981 (New York and Oxford 2015)Google Scholar. The number of students in higher education increased considerably during the post-junta period. From less than 30,000 in 1960, their numbers more than doubled by 1971–2 (70,161) and continued to rise till 1981–2 (87,476) and the subsequent years (111,911 by 1991–2): Charalambis, D., Maratou-Alipranti, L., and Hadjiyanni, A. (eds), Recent Social Trends in Greece 1960–2000 (Quebec 2004) 584 Google Scholar. It should be noted that these figures do not include those studying abroad, whose numbers increased rapidly from 9,985 in 1970 to 41,086 in 1981.

54 Parker, H. N., ‘Toward a definition of popular culture’, History and Theory 50 (2011) 158 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Adopting a Marxist perspective, Yorgos Veloudis argues that there are two kinds of ‘popular’ literature: the old, associated with rural communities and the demotic, and the new, associated with urbanism and so-called ‘para-literature’. The former originates from the people and is a primary form of popular literature while the latter is written for the people and is a secondary form of popular literature. In the first case producer and consumer are identical, whereas in the second they are distinct: ‘“Λόγια” και “λαϊκή” λογοτεχνία’, in Veloudis, Y., Ψηφίδες: Για μια θεωρία της λογοτεχνίας (Athens 1992) 57 Google Scholar.

56 More recently a novel published under the nom de plume Doufexi-Pope, Aliki, Το ακατέργαστόν μου (Athens 2013)Google Scholar has satirically explored the interaction and antagonism between highbrow and popular literature. The fictional author Alkis Chatzikostis — at the suggestion of his publisher — changes from being a serious and elitist writer to being a commercially successful popular fiction writer, publishing under the pen name of Aliki Doufexi-Pope (a supposed descendant of Alexander Pope) in order to subsidize the publication of his highbrow fiction (a novel of 832 pages). The irony here is that Alkis easily and successfully imitates the style of the popular writers he despises.

57 More recently, in April 2017, the newspaper Το Βήμα reprinted and distributed it to its readers, describing it as a prophetic novel that offered insights into post-junta Greek culture and the current crisis.

58 ‘Populism in literature’ was the theme of a colloquium organized by the Etaireia Scholis Moraiti in 1983. For a definition of ‘literary populism’ see Vayenas, N., ‘Οι μεταμφιέσεις του λαϊκισμού’, To Vima 22 October 2006, reprinted in Vayenas, N., Σημειώσεις από την αρχή του αιώνα (Athens 2013) 170–3Google Scholar.

59 See Kassis, K. D., Το ελληνικό λαϊκό μυθιστόρημα (1840-1940): Μυθιστορήματα και μελέτες σε λαϊκά φυλλάδια (Athens 1983)Google Scholar and Moullas, P., Ο χώρος του εφήμερου: Στοιχεία για την παραλογοτεχνία του 19ου αιώνα (Athens 2007)Google Scholar.

60 Kotzia, E., ‘Το ευπώλητο μυθιστόρημα και η ιδέα της λογοτεχνικότητας, 1985-2010’, in Kastrinaki, A., Politis, A. and Tziovas, D. (eds), Για μια ιστορία της ελληνικής λογοτεχνίας του εικοστού αιώνα (Herakleion 2012) 379–86Google Scholar.

61 This recovery (published short story collections went up from 123 in 2008 to 168 in 2014) can be attributed, among other things, to economic reasons and a proliferation of creative writing courses.

62 The much-discussed bestseller by Papathanasopoulou, Maira, Ο Ιούδας φιλούσε υπέροχα (Athens 1998)Google Scholar sold around 300,000 copies, a considerable number for the Greek book market, was serialized on Greek television and was translated into a number of languages. Judging from the recent book by Eva Stamou (Η επέλαση του ροζ, Athens 2014) resistance to trashy literature consumed primarily by women is still growing. It should be noted that one of the first studies of para-literature goes back to the early 1980s (see Martinidis, P., Συνηγορία της παραλογοτεχνίας, Athens 1982 Google Scholar).

63 Yannis Xanthoulis, one of only two writers to be given an entry in a dictionary of 1980s Greece (the other being Chronis Missios, who wrote political narratives) is listed as being the leading representative of popular Greek fiction, and his novel Το πεθαμένο λικέρ [The dead liqueur] (Athens 1987) is treated as a landmark in the emerging trend for bestsellers (Vamvakas and Panagiotopoulos (eds), Η Ελλάδα στη Δεκαετία του ’80, 379-82). It should be noted that the same dictionary has an entry for fiction but not for poetry.

64 See Filippou, F., ‘Crime fiction during the crisis’, in Lemos, N. and Yannakakis, E. (eds), Critical Times, Critical Thoughts: Contemporary Greek Writers Discuss Facts and Fiction (Newcastle upon Tyne 2015) 144–59Google Scholar.

65 Bourdieu, P., Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Nice, R. (New York and London 1986)Google Scholar.

66 Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, 5.

67 E. Giannopoulou and Th. Tramboulis, ‘Οι συγγραφείς ως οργανικοί διανοούμενοι: από την ηθογραφία στην ηθικολογία’, Unfollow 12, 13, 14, 16 (December 2012–April 2013).

68 Panagiotis Kondylis has argued that ‘in Greece the “popular” song, from its narration of the sadness of the hash smoker to the setting of serious poetry to music, has helped a great deal to transcend the old basic distinction between the “urban” or “high” and “popular” culture and produced something considered desirable by theorists of postmodern culture’: Οι αιτίες της παρακμής της σύγχρονης Ελλάδας (Athens 2011) 59.

69 Dionysis Savvopoulos, for instance, mixed Greek folk music and rebetiko with rock sounds in his songs (for example, ‘Black Sea’ and ‘Zeibekiko’) on the album Βρώμικο ψωμί [Dirty bread] (1972). See Papanikolaou, D., Singing Poets: Literature and Popular Music in France and Greece (Oxford 2007)Google Scholar.

70 Topali, M., ‘Οι δύο όψεις μιας δημοφιλούς ποίησης’, Poiisi 26 (Autumn-Winter 2005) 246–9Google Scholar. See also the reaction of K. Georgousopoulos ‘Η αλεπού και τα σταφύλια’ (Τα Νέα, 25-6 February 2006) and Topali's response (‘Απάντηση στον Κώστα Γεωργουσόπουλο’, Τα Νέα, 13 March 2006).

71 Garantoudis, E., ‘Το επικοινωνιακό φαινόμενο Κική Δημουλά’, The Athens Review of Books 52 (June 2014) 50–4Google Scholar; see also the rejoinder from Inglessi, C. Margellou, ‘Δημόσιοι καιροί και ιδιωτικές ακαιρίες’, The Books’ Journal 46 (September 2014)Google Scholar.

72 K. Koutsourelis, ‘Μιχάλης Γκανάς, Ποιήματα 1978–2012’, Book Press Online, 4 December 2013: http://www.bookpress.gr/diabasame/poiisi/ganaspoiimata?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email (accessed 2 February 2016).

73 K. Koutsourelis, ‘Πώς η ποίηση από τέχνη έγινε χόμπι’, Η Καθημερινή (Τέχνες και Γράμματα), 9 December 2012.

74 V. Lambropoulos, ‘Left melancholy in the Greek poetry generation of the 2000s’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Occasional Paper 10: https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_modern_greek_studies/VassilisLambropoulos.pdf (accessed 10 July 2016).

75 ‘Be one of us: Hellas by Tabula Rasa’ (2013), available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9bKe0KwEEA.

76 Rakopoulos, Th., ‘Resonance of solidarity: Meanings of a local concept in anti-austerity Greece’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 32 (2014) 313–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 It should be noted that debates over competing definitions of the nation in terms of ethnic descent or civic society have also increased in the last thirty years and have contributed to raising awareness about ethnic and cultural diversity.

78 The manifestations of this culture range from toleration of various forms of violence or the non-payment of toll road charges to Greece's failure to enforce a smoking ban.