Is Hellenism an Orientalism? Reflections on the boundaries of 'Europe' in an age of austerity

My point of departure is Said's rejection of the idea of an 'Orientalist' Hellenism. What might it mean to argue that Orientalism characterises 'intra-European' cultural politics, specifically the colonial geography of western Europe vis-...-vis its 'subaltern' Others? Contra Said, I argue that the function of Hellenism in constituting both the fantasy of Europe and western hegemony has an Orientalist structure. I explore the cultural underpinnings of Greece's relation to ` Europe' in Hellenistic discourses. Then, I argue that the dominant discourse surrounding the odious Greek debt has an Orientalist structure. Pairing a critique of Orientalism with a core-periphery analysis arguably enables a more nuanced understanding of the coloniality of power in today's 'age of austerity', enabling a deconstruction of the racial logic underlying continental integration and revealing the violence inherent in the fantasy of European civilisation.