Historical Representations of University Students: Post-War Discourses in the Greek Student Press

Abstract

In this article, we trace the histories of discourses concerning student identity in post-war Greece. Making use of the discourse-historical approach (DHA), textual data are analyzed in student journals published by students’ unions, factions and collectives of the University of Thessaloniki. Student identity is theorized as being constructed and negotiated in discourse, in close relation to sociopolitical context. In light of the discourse-historical approach it is assumed that the intensification of discursive strategies, such as nominations, predications and argumentations, and the reconceptualization of ingroup and outgroup dichotomy relate to student identity shifts. The findings from such an analysis detect successive shifts in student identity during the post-war period. Student identity is constructed upon the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ dichotomy. Students sometimes self-identify as agents of change and at other times as followers or recipients thereof, while their discourse is tuned with domestic sociopolitical developments.