Transforming Paramythi in diasporic literature : five Greek Australian writers

 This thesis examines how paramythi, as a literary trope, circulates in different ways in the texts of five Greek Australian writers and what this reveals about diasporic subjectivities.

Home space : youth identification in the Greek diaspora

This article draws on a larger study on schooling and diaspora using the case of the Greek community of Melbourne, Australia to examine processes of identification of young people with access to minority cultures. The Melbourne Greek community is long-standing, diverse, and well-established. Because of this, the young people involved in this study provide insights into cultural processes not related in any direct sense to migration. In most cases, it was their grandparents or great-grandparents who migrated. Many have 1 parent with no ancestral link to Greece. In this context, the motivations for and ways of expressing Greekness have the potential to illustrate identification as ambivalent. This article explores the centrality of “home” in these young people's representations of self. Following de Certeau, the argument is made that their everyday experience can be interpreted as an act of “anti-discipline.” As “users” of the Greekness, they are bequeathed through family, community, and schooling; and they use “tactics” of cultural redeployment that allow creative resistance and reinterpretation of both “Greekness” and “Australianness.”

The Greek Diaspora of Melboure, Australia, through the eyes of the second generation Greek Australians

Melbourne has a large and dynamic Greek community that began to form in the 1950s with migration to Australia in the years following the Second World War and the Greek Civil War. The elders of this community, in particular, have tried to ensure that their culture and traditions are kept alive and are handed down from generation to generation. The long history and cultural richness of the Greek tradition is a great source of pride to its members, and this is a key characteristic of the Greek community of Australia. Young and old Greek Australians speak of their country of origin with great pride and passion, as it remains central to their perception of nationality and ethnicity. This importance placed on the retention of the language and culture of their nation of origin means that cultural transmission across generations is of great significance to the community and can provide valuable insight into their interpretation of their own experiences. This paper will present findings from a three generation study about health beliefs and practices of women in the Melbourne Greek community. The experience of granddaughters, who represent the second Australian generation, and how they see their grandmothers’ experience as migrants to Australia will be discussed. The impact of the Diaspora phenomenon and the creation of a Greek community in Melbourne will be considered in the context of health, memory, religion, Greek culture, food, and personal and group identity.

The Greek diaspora of Melbourne: Australia through the eyes of the second generation Greek Australian

form in the 1950s with migration to Australia in the years following the Second World War and the Greek Civil War. The elders of this community, in particular, have tried to ensure that their culture and traditions are kept alive and are handed down from generation to generation. The long history and cultural richness of the Greek tradition is a great source of pride to its members, and this is a key characteristic of the Greek community of Australia. Young and old Greek Australians speak of their country of origin with great pride and passion, as it remains central to their perception of nationality and ethnicity. This importance placed on the retention of the language and culture of their nation of origin means that cultural transmission across generations is of great significance to the community and can provide valuable insight into their interpretation of their own experiences. This paper will present findings from a three generation study about health beliefs and practices of women in the Melbourne Greek community. The experience of granddaughters, who represent the second Australian generation, and how they see their grandmothers’ experience as migrants to Australia will be discussed. The impact of the Diaspora phenomenon and the creation of a Greek community in Melbourne will be considered in the context of health, memory, religion, Greek culture, food, and personal and group identity.