Caught Between East and West: Negotiating Modern Greek Identity in Ida of Athens and Anastasius

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Sydney Owenson’s Woman: or Ida of Athens (1809) and Thomas Hope’s Anastasius; or, Memoirs of a Greek; Written at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1819). The chapter fleshes out previous scholarly examinations of early nineteenth-century Greek-European transcultural relations by analyzing how British Romantic writers engaged in contemporary debates about Modern Greek identity. As this chapter demonstrates, Owenson and Hope represent different versions of Greeks and Greece. Namely, while Owenson’s Ida draws upon antiquarian notions of Greece in order to depict Modern Greek national identity and to advocate for Greek revolution, Hope’s Anastasius suggests that contemporary Greeks are not concerned about their ancient past but, rather, entrenched in Ottoman society.