The inter-war period is a period overshadowed by the First World War and characterized by changes and reclassifications that had a fertile outcome in the field of culture. There were new manners, new artistic creations, and an altogether new vision of man himself emerged.

In Greece the Asia Minor Catastrophe was the culminating event that dramatically transformed the geographic, demographic and ideological map. The tragedy of thousands of people turned into refugees redefined not only their living conditions but the way in which they and those who received them perceived reality.

Urban centres became the concentrated meeting points of many population classes from different backgrounds. Cultural expression became characterized by hints of all these voices that basically constituted the bourgeois world.

The immediate needs of the people and the requirement for a new town-planning concept made the bourgeois landscape the subject of special interest.

The city became a network of communication through which the messages of modernity spread to the whole of Greek society.

New artistic trends thriving in Europe had a significant impact on Greece and redirected the pursuits of artists and writers, while the language of criticism was called on to reconcile the new idioms that were being formed.

The intractable problems of education were exacerbated even more by the swift increase of pupils and the high rate of illiteracy. The state tried to provide some solutions by implementing educational reforms.

After the trauma of Asia Minor, Greek society began to detect the ways in which its identity was defined. An ongoing quest for the definition of 'Greekness' in artistic creation, theoretic language and folklore study became evident.