Description
Lemonia Tsavdaridou and Petroula Tsoli
National identity is strongly related to its immediate context (Hertzfeld, 2005) and may eloquently be inscribed in discourse (Benwell and Stokoe 2006). The study examines cultural values in Kolokotronis’ Memoirs which shaped the Greek identity in the time of the 1821 revolutionary movement. The study uses Schwartz’s categorisation of human values model to suggest values that shaped the emerging Greek nation-state. A close reading of the text reveals that although occasional instances of the whοle spectrum of values do appear, Benevolence, Tradition and (Non)-Conformity (in Schwartz’s categorisation) were the values which primarily governed the 1821 Greek national identity.
