From the Mansion of the Pasha to the Crypt of the Sphinx: The Representation of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Mikros Iros Magazine
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/pkn.v48.i3.03Keywords:
modern Greek literature, Anemodouras, Stelios: Mikros Iros, pulp magazines, imagology, Eastern Mediterranean, Orientalism, non-places, banal nationalismAbstract
The article examines issues 17–20 of Mikros Iros (Little Hero), a widely read Greek pulp magazine for children and adolescents written by Stelios Anemodouras and illustrated by Vyron Aptosoglou. Published weekly between 1951 and 1968, the magazine has appeared in a total of 798 issues. Its protagonist, the teenager Giorgos Thalassis, joins the Greek resistance during the German Occupation of Greece (1941–1944). The narrative intertwines real historical events with elements of popular literary imagination. In issues 17–20, Giorgos confronts the Nazi agent Seitan Alaman, first in Cairo and subsequently in Istanbul. These episodes construct a representation of regions, spaces, and prominent monuments of the Eastern Mediterranean, shaped predominantly by discourses of Orientalism, ethnocentrism, antifascism, and popular fiction. To interpret these representations, the article employs a theoretical framework that draws on Edward Said’s analysis of Orientalism, Marc Augé’s concept of touristic non-places, and Michael Billig’s theory of banal nationalism.
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