
Contents
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From Similarity to Difference From Similarity to Difference
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Reframing the Legacy Reframing the Legacy
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Problematising the Legacy Problematising the Legacy
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Conclusion: are we the Greeks? Conclusion: are we the Greeks?
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Programmes Discussed Programmes Discussed
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Notes Notes
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1 Are We the Greeks? Understanding Antiquity and Ourselves in Television Documentaries
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Published:May 2018
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Abstract
The notion that the West has its cultural and political roots in ancient Greece has long been a mainstay of discourses on national identity in Britain, as in other countries (primarily in Europe and North America) that imagine themselves as belonging to ‘the West’. This chapter examines how this supposition of a ‘Greek legacy’ or ‘Greek inheritance’ has been mediated through British television documentaries. Whether the legacy is used as a framing device for wider assessments of ancient Greek society, or is the focus of direct investigation, the notion of a legacy is sustained. However, at every turn the proposition is undercut. Assertions of similarity between ‘us’ and ‘them’ coexist alongside demonstrations of difference; or the legacy is a modern invention that serves social, political and psychological needs; or it can be problematic and undesirable. At the same time as its existence is maintained, the ‘Greek legacy’ is revealed to be a fiction, or even a fetish: a fantasy that hides its own lack. In a Britain (and Europe) marked by cultural diversity and political division, television exposes the untenability of an ideology that elides such differences by making us all ancient Greeks, whilst continuing to ascribe it power.
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