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The point of departure for this dissertation is a historical, epistemological and methodological discussion of the notion of “community”. Based on a comparative approach to the three cases of the Greeks in Venice, Livorno and Marseilles... more
The point of departure for this dissertation is a historical, epistemological and methodological discussion of the notion of “community”. Based on a comparative approach to the three cases of the Greeks in Venice, Livorno and Marseilles from the age of the “Greek Enlightenment” (c. 1770) up until the birth of an independent Neohellenic state (1830), this study aims to challenge the conventional image of early modern foreign communities as homogeneous and inclusive groups, by rendering the complex, diverse, and often contradictory trajectories of groups and individuals that formed what we know as “the Greek Diaspora”. Paying special attention to issues such as the administrative control of the migrants, the collective uses of urban space, and the sharing of socio-cultural practices, it reconstructs the multi-layered background that supported the expression of communal identities among the Greeks in Venice, Livorno and Marseilles. By recasting the three cases under scrutiny within the wider context of the many connections and relations that existed among them, the dissertation stresses the ways in which the entanglement of mercantile, migratory and family networks came to “shape” the Greek Diaspora as a space both physical and socio-symbolical. Conversely, and in a micro-historical perspective, it also analyses the role played by the “communal institutions” (namely the Greek-Orthodox churches and brotherhoods) in shaping collective identities and governing plural and heterogeneous social groups, as well as the many types of reaction and resistance to this progressive “institutionalisation” of community life. Lastly, a case-study on the ambiguous involvement of the Greeks in Venice, Livorno and Marseilles in the Greek war of independence (1821-1830), sheds light on the complex issue of the “patriotism of the expatriates”, and argues for an essential distinction between the making of communal identity, and that of national (or even “proto-national”) consciousness.
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Department of History and Civilization
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Les Grecs à Venise, Livourne et Marseille,v.1770-v.1830
Mathieu Grenet
Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute6 September 2010
 
EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Department of History and Civilization
La Fabrique Communautaire
Les Grecs à Venise, Livourne et Marseille,v.1770-v.1830
Mathieu Grenet
Examining Board
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Prof. Brigitte Marin (Université Aix-Marseille I
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M.M.S.H.)Prof. Anthony Molho (EUI) - supervisorProf. Antonella Romano (EUI)Prof. Francesca Trivellato (Yale University)
 
© 2010, Mathieu GrenetNo part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of theauthor
 
 
 À môssieur Nadir et m‟sieur Robin 
  À mes parents Pour Isa 
 
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