Demetres Glenos and Educational Demoticism in Greece

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the role of Demetres Glenos in the struggle of Demoticism to reform modern Greek language, education, and society. The historical development of the modern Greek language provided the background upon which to analyze the movement of Demoticism in the first part of the twentieth century.

The language problem which the bourgeois class of Greece tried to solve in the early part of this century was related to the broader ideological issues of the supremacy and efficiency of that class.

The liberal government of Venizelos tried at first to reform the language; it was unsuccessful. During that period, Demetres Glenos, an enlightened liberal, entered into the intellectual life of Greece. In his effort to accomplish an educational and language reform, however, Glenos realized the unwillingness of the liberal party to take a strong stand on the reform which it had promised to accomplish. Thus from 1927 until his death in 1943, Glenos slowly moved toward a leftist position.