Modern Greek Literature Critical Essays

This collection examines major Greek authors from the early 19th century through the present day, spanning from romantic to postmodern authors, poets, and playwrights. The essays focus on intersections between oral and written traditions in 19th and 20th century Greece. Major authors discussed included Solomos, Vizyenos, Papadiamantis, Seferis, and many others.

The essays collected in Modern Greek Literature represent the work of young scholars as they expand the range of approaches to modern Greek literature. The contributors vary in their focus from comparative studies to the study of religion or the literature of diaspora. The theoretical questions that the essays raise address both classic and contemporary debates, from genre explorations to the relationship between literature and national identity. Each contribution to this volume represents a fresh look at Greek literature and opens a distinct pathway for further research and consideration. From this collection will arise innumerable opportunities to gain a newer and deeper understanding of a great literary tradition.

Introduction Ancient Models and Novel Mixtures: The Concept of Genre in Byzantine Funerary Literature from Photios to Eustathios of Thessalonike, Panagiotis A. Agapitos The Conflict Bewtween Scholarios and Plethon: Religion and Naitonal Identity in Early Modern Greece, Christopher Livanos De Man, The Woman and Her Writing: Transcendence and/or Defacement in Elisavet Moutzan-Martinegou's Autobiography, Patricia Felisa and Vangelis Calotychos The Poetics of Mimicry: Pitzipios and the Beginnings of the Modern Greek Novel, Panagiotic Roilos There was only one thing paradoxical about the man: An Oblique Perspective on Madness in Four Stories, George Vizyenos and Yota Batsaki Promiscuous Texts and Abandoned Readings in the Poetry of P.V. Cavafy, George Syrimis Literature as Historiography: The Boxful of Guilt, Emmanuela Kantzia Leaving, Loosing, Letting Go: Some Steps in Bilingual Transformations from the Work of Theodor Kallifatides, Monika Kallan Return from Greece: Journey and Homecoming in two Contemporary Greek Novels, Anna Stavrakpoulou Palimpsests of Sappho in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Greece: An Overview, Dimitrios Yatromanolakis

Anna Stavrakopoulou is Lecturer in Modern Greek Language and Literature at Harvard and Deputy Executive Director of the AS Onassis Public Benefit Foundation in New York City. Gregory Nagy is Professor of Classics at Harvard.