Constructing national identity: Depictions of national and international space in Second World War Greek popular iconography

Abstract

This paper discusses artistic representations of space in relation to constructions of national identity in Second World War popular icons (λαϊκές εικόνες). Due to their origins, name and production by private initiative rather than state directive, popular icons were not directly associated with propaganda or seen as means of state ideology. This paper argues that they are valuable primary sources that need to be studied in their own right, as carriers of official ideas in wartime that can contribute to understandings of cultural belonging in modern Greece, especially in reference to representations of space.