Supervisors info:
Βαγγέλης Καραμανωλάκης, αναπληρωτής καθηγητής, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Δήμητρα Λαμπροπούλου, λέκτορας, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Δέσποινα Παπαδημητρίου, αναπληρώτρια καθηγήτρια, τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Ιστορίας, Πάντειο
Summary:
The subject of the present thesis is the formation of a hero in the face of Alekos Panagoulis, during the long greek decade of 1970s, from 1967 to 1981. The resistance against the military dictatorship (1967-1974) supplied the collective fantasies of the 3rd Greek Republic with heroic figures, collectively and individually. If in the level of collective hero, «Politechnio» (polytechnic university) has the unrivaled dominance, the central hypothesis of the thesis focuses on the first place that Panagoulis possess among the individual heroes of the Greeks’ struggle against the dictatorship. In other words, taking Panagoulis as the model eponymous individual hero of the struggle against the dictatorship, I am trying to trace the conditions and mechanisms inside and via which the said hero was formed.
The thesis observes the processes of Panagoulis hero-making, both during his life, as well as on the first five years following his death. I am trying to shed light to the composing practices of the symbol “Panagoulis”, the semantics of the hero identity which was attributed to him, as well as which were those memory communities that “orchestrated” the making of this hero. I am also making an effort to show that the four main issues that were connected to Panagoulis [ferocious struggle against the dictatorship, unrelenting fighting poetic works, catharsis-removal of everything related to the military junta and investigations concerning Cyprus] were the main threads, the intermingling of which was the creative force behind the construction of the hero. In the main argument, I am supporting that following the “Metapolitefsi” of 1974, and the next decades of the 3rd Greek Republic, Panagoulis became progressively a mutually accepted hero, the unifying symbol of a past, authoritarian as well as heroic era. Returning to the first period of the hero-making, I am trying to show first, that things were not always the same and second, that the said final outcome of the history, thus the hero-making, came as result of a series of different and complicated intermingled processes, full of contingencies and on the absence of any kind of teleology.
The thesis comes in three parts, which are largely defined by periods, and the directions given by the source material itself. In the first chapter we investigate the hero-making processes taking place from August 1968 and the attempt against the life of the dictator G. Papadopoulos until the release of Panagoulis from prison, five years later, on August 1973. During these five first years, emphasis is given to the decisive first moment of hero-making processes, during the campaign to inform the European and international community in order to stop the execution of the death penalty, to opposite poles that were expressed to the relevant anti-dictatorship text-creation about Panagoulis and books that were referring to the attempt, as well as to the first traceable motives of the creation of a heroic symbol. On the second chapter we examine the dynamics of hero-making during the three years, 1973-1976, the only period on which Panagoulis, after his heroic act, thus, the attempt, was both alive and free. There, we are trying to show the coexistence -in parallel and complementary- of the hero construction by others along with the self-making of hero from the Panagoulis himself. Finally, on the third chapter, we are focusing on the motives and practices of heroic memory processes of Panagoulis, the first five years following his death, from 1976 to 1981. In order to shed light to the post mortem hero-making, we examine three points. First, the political ambience expressed around his death May-June 1976, thus, how his controversial death became a political subject and focal point of the hero-making, as well as the themes and methods of the early post mortem symbol creation. Second, we investigate ways of remembrance and the practices of hero-making on the anniversaries of the five years following his death. Third, we study the question: «How a hero passes to bibliography?», through the visit of six books written in the period 1976-1981, having Panagoulis as the main subject.
Keywords:
military dictatorship, resistance against the military dictatorship, greek junta 1967-1974, hero-making, heroes, heroism, metapolitefsi, Panagoulis
