Martha Papaspiliou

Martha Papaspiliou

Miss

Personal profile

Research interests (short)

Romantic Nationalism, Memory and Commemoration in the 19th c. Greece and Europe, Literature and the Production of Cultural Memory

Biographical details

Holding a BA in Greek Philology (Major: Medieval, Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology, Minor: Classics and Linguistics) from University of Ioannina, Greece and an MPhil in Modern Greek Literature from the same university, I am now Ph.D researcher at Classics Department, King's College London. Before enrolling at King's as Ph.D student, I have previously been for six months at The Centre for Hellenic Studies KCL as Visiting Reseacrh Student, undertaking research for my MPhil thesis entitled Gender and Nation; 'Heroines' in the Literature of Romantic Era, which was presented and awarded at University of Ioannina, at 2013 (Distinction). My ongoing research project adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to literature and explores literary texts of the period 1830-1870 through the lens of cultural memory, addressing the nexus among three strands, namely nationalism, commemoration and literature. The aim of my thesis is to trace the ‘cultural foundations’ of the Greek national identity in the construction of a commemorative culture based on the monumentalization of the national heroes of the recent past, that is to say of the heroes of the last years of the Ottoman rule and of the protagonists of the Greek War of Independence. My research is focused on the study of the intellectual processes that enabled the introduction and the establishment of the commemorative practice in the post-revolutionary Greek public sphere via literature, taking into consideration both the Greek primary sources and their transnational influences and intertexts.

Education/Academic qualification