What is the role of literature in shaping national identity? What role did literature play in shaping the national consciousness of modern Hellenism? To what extent is today's modern Greek consciousness based on earlier developments dating back to the Byzantine Empire or even the early post-Byzantine years? How did Greek writers address these issues after the formation of the modern Greek state, during the 19th and 20th centuries until today?
The book's studies deal with the controversial issue of the origins of modern Greek literature and the modern trends that characterize literary production from the 12th to the early 17th century. They examine the formation and consolidation of national consciousness from the formation of the nation-state until the late 19th century, and analyze literary texts of the 20th century in relation to the broader reflection that runs throughout the book, summarized in the phrase of a character from the novel Argo by Giorgos Theotokas: "I, gentlemen, believe in the idea of the nation."