Date of Award

8-1999

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Dr. Paula Brush

Second Advisor

Dr. Douglas Davidson

Third Advisor

Dr. Vyacheslav Karpov

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

My thesis addresses the role of Cypriot intellectuals in the nationalist movement aiming at the political union of Cyprus with Greece. In particular, it will examine the contribution of three intellectual categories to the 1931 uprising, namely clerics, teachers, and journalists. The 1931 nationalist uprising was the first Greek nationalist mass movement in Cyprus, and can be seen as laying the ground for the 1955-1960 armed struggle against the British, who were the colonial rulers of the island at the time. Furthermore, I argue that over and above the petty interests of modernized urban elites, it was the accommodation of prevalent cultural values and symbols that afforded the movement's resonance among the Greek population of the island. Finally, I propose that structuralist theories viewing the development of nationalism in Cyprus as a purely hegemonic process tend to neglect the dialogical aspects of nationalist discourse.

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