The Poetics of Patriotism: Italian Rule and Greek Nationalist Consciousness

Abstract

In the previous chapter, I argued that traditional views about the influence of nationalism on popular dissent needed radical qualification. Nationalism remains, however, an important theme for our understanding of Italian rule because it constituted the only articulated and sustained anti-foreign ideology. The basic features of Greek nationalist thought need to be defined in order to describe how patriots saw their Italian occupiers, and to assess the significance of their ‘patriotic’ actions. This chapter will continue to revise nationalism’s historical role in the Italian Dodecanese by focusing on those islanders who happened to be ‘patriotically-minded’. Nationalist values informed the outlook of a small but growing number of individuals whose movements were monitored closely by a wary colonial regime. This important minority of Dodecanesians, who hereafter shall be referred to simply as ‘patriots’, experienced a different kind of occupation to the common folk. This alternative patriotic experience was heavily influenced by their higher social status in community life, the special attention they attracted from the colonial regime, and their patriotic mentality.