ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 introduces the literatures of Cyprus by focussing on the production of the pedagogical sector, which is shot through with political and ideological implications. Starting from pedagogical imperialism of the Ottoman and British moments to its impacts in present policies, the chapter introduces the official definition of the literatures, whilst showing ways literature education has always defined and divided the people yet with potential to unite them. In this way, the chapter introduces various dominant and emergent identities, with particular emphasis on demonstrating ways the official identification is mirrored in the national literature curricula on both sides of the divide. The literature curricula, translated from Greek and Turkish to English, is analysed fully through focus on well-known figures such Constantine Cavafy from Greece’s dominant literary canon, Orhan Veli from Turkey’s dominant canon and a range of leading Cypriots from Cyprus’ emergent canon. This analysis shows that cultural and national definition operates through dynamism and contest between dominant and emergent positions, understood through Raymond Williams. Here Turkish-Cypriots and Greek-Cypriots strive for a balanced identification with two positions across the hyphen determined by two places – Greece or Turkey and Cyprus: the dominant ethnic position determined by the nationalist dependence on Greece or Turkey, where Cypriot is subject to this ineluctable given ethno-national abstraction; and an emergent Cyprus position based on a patriotism to everyday life in the island, wherein the Cypriot is subject of her/his national concrete-abstraction.
