Abstract
Marianne Hirsch’s notion of postmemory attempts to answer the question of what happens to first-hand memories when they are filtered down through subsequent generations. According to Hirsch, postmemories are powerful because they are invested with imagination and creation. Because of the aforementioned attributes Hirsch assigned to postmemory, it follows that postmemory can fill in memory gaps. This raises the unresolved problem of postmemory and the appropriation of the past. This paper investigates how and in what ways films can create instrumental and thus didactic cultural memories by way of looking at the recent very popular and successful film in Greece about the Greek Civil War, Psychi Vathia/Deep Soul (2009) by Pantelis Voulgaris and analyses the ways in which it complicates historical representation. In particular, I focus on the formal and thematic elements of the film and suggest that Voulgaris shows history as transition and offers a didactic postmemory of a fixed horizon.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, G. M., The Prelude to the Truman Doctrine: British Policy in Greece 1944–1947 (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1982).
Assmann, Jan, Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies. Translated by Rodney Livingstone. (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2006).
Carabott, Philip, Sfikas, Thanasis, eds. The Greek Civil War: Essays on the Conflict of Exceptionalism and Silences. (Hampshire: Ashgate, 2004).
Chapman, Jane, Hoyles, Anna, Kerr, Andrew and Sherif, Adam, Comics and the World Wars: A Cultural Record. (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Close, David H, The Greek Civil War: Studies in Polarization. (London: Routledge, 1993).
_______, The Origins of the Greek Civil War. (London, New York: Longman, 1995).
_______, “The Road to Reconciliation? The Greek Civil War and the Politics of Memory in the 1980s”. In The Greek Civil War: Essays on the Conflict of Exceptionalism and Silences, edited by Philip Carabott and Thanasis Sfikas, 257–278. (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2004).
Dailiana, Dora, “The Third Chance of Grammos”. Sunday Eleftherotypia, 15 November 2009. [Νταιλιάνα, Ντόρα. “Η τρίτη ευκαιρία του Γράμμου”. Κυριακάτικη Ελευθεροτυπία, 15 Νοεμβρίου 2009.] At: [http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=102051]. Accessed 10 September 2016.
Eudes, Dominique, The Captains: The Greek Civil War 1943–1949. Translated by George Papakyriakis. (Athens: Exantas, 1945).
Ferro, Marc, Cinema and History. Translated by Naomi Greene. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988).
Giovani, Tzia. “Psychi Bathia and … far away from the truth”. Rizospastis, 8 October 2009. [Τζιοβάνη, Τζία. “Ψυχή Βαθιά και η … αλήθεια πέρα”. Ριζοσπάστης, 8 Οκτωβρίου 2009].
Halbwachs, Maurice, On Collective Memory. Edited and translated by Lewis A. Coser. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
Hirsch, Marianne, Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1977).
________, “Projected Memory: Holocaust Photographs in Personal and Public Fantasy”. In Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Past, edited by Mieke Bal, Jonathan Crewe and Leo Spitzer, 3–23. (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1999).
_________, “Surviving Images: Holocaust Photographs and the Work of Postmemory”. In Visual Culture and the Holocaust, edited by Barbie Zelizer, 215–246. (London: Athlone, 2001).
Iatrides, John, “Britain, The United States, and Greece, 1945-9”. In The Greek Civil War: Studies in Polarization, edited by David H. Close, 190–213. (London: Routledge, 1993).
Iliou, Filippos, The Greek Civil War: The Involvement of the KKE. (Athens: Themelio, 2004). [Ηλιού, Φίλιππος. 2004. Ο Ελληνικός Εμφύλιος Πόλεμος: Η Εμπλοκή του ΚΚΕ. Αθήνα: Θεμέλιο].
Imdb Database, “Pantelis Voulgaris”. At [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0903837/]. Accessed 10 September 2016.
Kaes, Anton, From Hitler to Heimat: The Return of History as Film. (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989).
Kalyvas, Stathis N., “Civil War (1943–1949): The end of the myths and the turn towards the level of the masses”. Science and Society 12, 37–70, 2003. [Καλύβας, Στάθης. 2003. “Εμφύλιος Πόλεμος (1943–1949): Το Τέλος των μύθων και η στροφή προς το μαζικό επίπεδο”. Επιστήμη και Κοινωνία 12, 37–70].
_________, The Logic of Violence in Civil War. (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Kosmidou, Eleftheria, European Civil War Films: Memory, Conflict and Nostalgia. (New York and London: Routledge, 2016).
Kuhn, Annette, An Everyday Magic: Cinema and Cultural Memory. (London: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2002).
Landy, Marcia, “Introduction”. In The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media, edited by Marcia Landy, 1–22. (London: The Athlone Press, 2001).
_________, ed. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. (London: The Athlone Press, 2001).
Liakos, Antonis, “Dekemvriana in the broad historical horizon”. To Bima, 7 December 2014 [Λιάκος, Αντώνης. “Τα Δεκεμβριανά στον ευρύ ιστορικό ορίζοντα”. Το Βήμα, 7 Δεκεμβρίου 2014.] At [http://www.tovima.gr/opinions/article/?aid=657078]. Accessed 12 November 2016.
Margaritis, George, History of the Greek Civil War 1946–1949. 2 Vols. (Athens: Bibliorama, 2002). [Mαργαρίτης, Γεώργιος. 2002. Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Εμφυλίου Πολέμου 1946-1949. 2 Τόμ. Αθήνα: Βιβλιόραμα].
Miliaronikolaki, Eleni, “Psychi Bathia: to the ‘war’ that still goes on”. Rizospastis, 20 October 2009. [Μηλιαρονικολάκη, Ελένη. “Ψυχή Βαθιά στον ‘πόλεμο’ που ακόμα συνεχίζεται”. Ριζοσπάστης, 20 Οκτωβρίου 2009.] Retrieved from [http://www.rizospastis.gr/story.do?id=5314461]. Accessed 12 November 2016.
Mirtsioti, Giota, “Interviews: Markos Meskos: We weren’t defeated, we failed”. I Kathimerini, 1 March 2014. [Μυρτσιώτη, Γιώτα. “Συνεντεύξεις: Μάρκος Μέσκος: Τελικά δεν ηττηθήκαμε, αποτύχαμε”. Η Καθημερινή, 1 Μαρτίου 2014. At: [http://www.kathimerini.gr/755992/article/proswpa/synentey3eis/markos-meskos-telika-den-htth8hkame-apotyxame]. Accessed 10 September 2016.
Mparka, Fotini, “Does the Humane Gaze on the Civil War still Bother?” Eleftherotipia, 23 October 2009. [Μπάρκα, Φωτεινή. “Το ανθρώπινο βλέμμα πάνω στον Εμφύλιο ενοχλεί ακόμα;”. Ελευθεροτυπία, 23 Οκτωβρίου 2009.] Retreieved from [http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=94733]. Accessed 10 November 2016.
Nachmani, Amikam, “Civil War and Foreign Intervention in Greece: 1946–1949”. Journal of Contemporary History 25 (4): 489–522, 1990.
Neer, Robert M., Naplam: An American Biography. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013).
New York City Greek Film Festival, “10th Anniversary”. At: [http://nycgreekfilmfestival.com/past-festivals/2010-films/]. Accessed 10/11/ 2016.
Poulakos, Nestoras, “Psychi Vathia”. Apogevmatini, 2 November 2009. [Πουλάκος, Νέστορας. “Ψυχή Βαθιά”. Απογευματινή, 2 Νοεμβρίου 2009].
Rosa, Isaac, El vano ayer. (Madrid: Seix Barral, 2005).
Rosenstone, Robert, Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000).
Sorlin, Pierre, The Film in History: Restaging the Past. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980).
Stavrianos, Leften Stavros, “The Greek National Liberation Front (EAM): A Study in Resistance Organization and Administration”. Journal of Modern History 24 (1): 42–55, 1952.
Terzis, Kostas, “Psychi Vathia”. Avgi. 22 October 2009. [Τερζής, Κώστας. “Ψυχή Βαθιά”]. Αυγή. 22 Οκτωβρίου 2009.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kosmidou, E.R. (2017). Civil Wars and Cinematic Narrative: The Case of Psychi Vathia (Deep Soul, Pantelis Voulgaris, 2009). In: Deslandes, K., Mourlon, F., Tribout, B. (eds) Civil War and Narrative. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61179-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61179-2_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61178-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61179-2
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)