Editorial Comment

Abstract

The debate around the post-modernist movement in contemporary art and literature has provided material for a great deal of critical discussion and cultural self-examination and, with some exceptions, the debate has been confined to predominantly 'western' cultures. In this issue, Greg Jusdanis looks at some of the taken-for-granteds of this debate, more particularly the implication of the concept the 'West', for Greek literary selfawareness. The discussion is relevant to medievalists, too, of course, for it touches indirectly upon another debate of a more historiographical nature, namely, the problems of ethnocentrism in history-writing which have been evident throughout the evolution of modern Byzantine Studies. Notions of what counts as 'Greek', as 'western', or what counts as evidence of 'Slav' influence, and so on, have played a significant role; and while the assumptions upon which much of the debate was originally founded are now for the most part regarded as either outmoded or irrelevant, it is important to observe how these valences work themselves out through a different set of contemporary discourses.