ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on research sponsored and supported in many ways by the Greek Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA), Athens. Barba-Yannis o kanatas, uncle John the pottery-dealer, is the handsome hero of a very well-known Athenian song, usually accompanied by guitars and mandolins. According to the lyrics, he was famous for his smart Sunday outfit, polished shoes, and top-hat. Barba-Yannis is also mentioned by Penelope Delta in her most popular novel, Trelandonis. In Greek point of view, the most threatening element of Balkan national emancipation was irredentism. Through the back door, the question of ethnological and linguistic boundaries was being reintroduced, amounting to a renegotiation of historical rights, and including a reassessment of the revolutionary tradition. Inferiority and superiority vis-vis the Balkan nations were two sides of the same coin. The coin was what Skopetea has called the national question' of Greece. This includes the vicissitudes of Greek national consciousness trapped between necessities and contradictions of state-building and irredentism.
