This month, we present the book Colonial Cyprus: A Cultural History, edited by our Institute’s Research Fellow Dr. Maria Chatzathanasiou together with Dr. Andreas Karyos and Dr. Emilios Solomou, published by Bloomsbury.
- Central Argument of the Book
The collective volume *Colonial Cyprus: A Cultural History* (Bloomsbury, 2024) is an original, innovative, and timely study of Cyprus’s cultural history under British rule, offering a new interpretive framework for understanding the island’s (post)colonial past. The anthology focuses on the often-overlooked cultural dimensions of the colonial experience in Cyprus and highlights the crucial role that cultural activity played in shaping the country's historical trajectory and present.
- Additional Contribution of the Book
This is the first volume to examine various aspects of the island’s cultural life from 1878, when Cyprus transitioned from Ottoman to British administration, until the founding of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960. It includes a series of original thematic chapters written exclusively by women researchers, working both within and beyond academia. The authors focus on topics such as photography, architecture, literature, theatre, art and art collecting, cultural policy, advertising, fashion, antiquities and archaeology, public gardens, and athletic clubs. The individual chapters reveal unpublished archival material in both Greek and English, including written and visual sources from state and private archives. Employing interdisciplinary analytical tools from fields such as imperial, colonial, and postcolonial history, political science, cultural studies, and media and communication studies, the authors offer new interpretations and perspectives.
- Key Features of the Book and Target Audience
Anyone interested in modern Cypriot history, the history of colonialism and decolonization, cultural history, visual culture, and identity studies will benefit from reading this book.
The volume offers for the first time interpretations of traditionally unexplored or understudied topics in the history of the Mediterranean and the Near East (compared, for example, with the cultural history of India or Commonwealth countries like Australia), such as the history of public gardens as spaces of control and resistance, and fashion as a form of passive resistance under British rule — all through an interdisciplinary approach.
The anthology is the first of its kind, as it is largely written by women. Previous published research on aspects of the topics explored in the volume had appeared mainly in the form of journal articles and, to a much lesser extent, monographs. Therefore, this publication represents the first collective effort of its kind.
The collective volume *Colonial Cyprus: A Cultural History* (Bloomsbury, 2024) is an original, innovative, and timely study of Cyprus’s cultural history under British rule, offering a new interpretive framework for understanding the island’s (post)colonial past. The anthology focuses on the often-overlooked cultural dimensions of the colonial experience in Cyprus and highlights the crucial role that cultural activity played in shaping the country's historical trajectory and present.
- Additional Contribution of the Book
This is the first volume to examine various aspects of the island’s cultural life from 1878, when Cyprus transitioned from Ottoman to British administration, until the founding of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960. It includes a series of original thematic chapters written exclusively by women researchers, working both within and beyond academia. The authors focus on topics such as photography, architecture, literature, theatre, art and art collecting, cultural policy, advertising, fashion, antiquities and archaeology, public gardens, and athletic clubs. The individual chapters reveal unpublished archival material in both Greek and English, including written and visual sources from state and private archives. Employing interdisciplinary analytical tools from fields such as imperial, colonial, and postcolonial history, political science, cultural studies, and media and communication studies, the authors offer new interpretations and perspectives.
- Key Features of the Book and Target Audience
Anyone interested in modern Cypriot history, the history of colonialism and decolonization, cultural history, visual culture, and identity studies will benefit from reading this book.
The volume offers for the first time interpretations of traditionally unexplored or understudied topics in the history of the Mediterranean and the Near East (compared, for example, with the cultural history of India or Commonwealth countries like Australia), such as the history of public gardens as spaces of control and resistance, and fashion as a form of passive resistance under British rule — all through an interdisciplinary approach.
The anthology is the first of its kind, as it is largely written by women. Previous published research on aspects of the topics explored in the volume had appeared mainly in the form of journal articles and, to a much lesser extent, monographs. Therefore, this publication represents the first collective effort of its kind.
