‘Le Barbare parle Grec’: French Classical Scholars and the Racialisation of Modern Greek
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This article investigates the use of philology and classical scholarship in the racial categorisation of modern Greeks by French scholars in Greece in the second half of the nineteenth century, in particular the members of the French School in Athens, founded in 1846. It argues that modern Greeks are ‘racialised’ by these scholars of antiquity in relation to their perceived proximity with their classical heritage. It thus demonstrates how classical scholarship and philology are used as tools to justify racial inferiority and theories of degeneration through systematic scientific attempts to categorise and create scientific hierarchies grounded in linguistic difference.
Source: Dix-Neuf
Author: Sarah Budasz
Institution: University of Amsterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4394986738