Date: 2025
Type: Thesis
Intellectual activists in an age of revolutions : women's ideas and political practices in the Greek cultural space (1800-1830)
Florence : European University Institute, 2025, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis
PAPALEXOPOULOU, Elisavet, Intellectual activists in an age of revolutions : women's ideas and political practices in the Greek cultural space (1800-1830), Florence : European University Institute, 2025, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77885
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This thesis examines the writings and the political lives of women who were willingly or unwillingly identified as Greek at the time surrounding the Greek Revolution of 1821. As empires crumbled and geographies changed, women tried to reposition themselves in the political landscape. They were affected by the ideas of enlightenment and romanticism that were forming an interesting hybrid in the Southeastern Mediterranean. Sometimes they used the tools they already had in hand (salons, translation), while others they tried to reinvent what was possible for their sex (publication of original works, secret societies). As is often the case with female actors, despite the earnest efforts of Greek women’s historians, historiography has not acknowledged their importance. They have, in one way or the other, been omitted from all accounts, or when they are present, their role has been severely underplayed. In this thesis, I recover some of them who were completely lost while I recast the lives and role of others.
Additional information:
Defence date: 17 January 2025; Examining Board: Prof. Ann Thomson (European University Institute, supervisor ); Prof. Glenda Sluga (European University Institute); Prof. Konstantina Zanou (Columbia University); Prof. Ioannis Koubourlis (University of Crete)
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77885
Full-text via DOI: 10.2870/9297488
Series/Number: EUI; HEC; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute
Preceding version: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77891; https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77888; https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77889; https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77890
Version: Chapter 2 'The intellectual boundaries of material space: women’s writings on geography, the fatherland, patriotism, and the war' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Female Fatherlands: Women of Letters, Greek Patriotism and the Revolution of 1821' (2023) in the journal 'Historein'.
Chapter 1 and 3 'Voices of a Revolution: Women, Language, and Nationhood' and 'Agency and actions: salons, philhellenism, and secret societies' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Tracing the ‘Political’ in Women’s Work: Women of Letters in the Greek Cultural Space, 1800–1832' (2021) in the journal 'Journal of Modern Greek Studies'.
Chapter 1 'Voices of a Revolution: Women, Language, and Nationhood' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as chapter 'Women of the Word: Translation and Political Activism in the Age of Revolutions' (2023) in the book 'History of Intellectual Culture'.
Chapter 5 'A women’s nation: Maria Anastasia Petrettini and her intellectual borderlands' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as chapter 'Trans-Adriatic Enlightenments: Maria Petrettini’s Italian Translation of the Turkish Embassy Letters' (2024) in the book 'Gender and Cultural Mediation in the Long Eighteenth Century: Women across Borders'.
