Maria Koundoura completed her PhD at Stanford University and is currently an Associate Professor in the department of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College.

• Introduction1 Re-occupying the site of the Modern2 Mapping the Real (in) Greece3 Producing the Nation’s Narrative4 Negotiating Identity in a Transnational WorldConclusion

"'In 'The Greek Idea', Maria Koundoura presents readers with a superb rendition of the current debates over how to approach 'modernity' as a terminus within 'history' that have animated traditional disciplines, such as history and philosophy, in their confrontation with postmodern and postcolonial theories. By putting Greece and its historical and diasporic transformations into the frame of recent concerns over identity formation within postmodernity and postcolonialism, Koundoura has introduced a fascinating set of problems that will engage and inform critics working across a number of debates and disciplines-historiography, political theory, feminism, colonial discourse studies, media and cultural studies.' (Gerald MacLean, Anniversary Professor University of York)"