outgreece literature

about GREECE 199 LITERATURE by Dr. Philip D. Dracodaidis Author The fall of Constantinople in 1453 marksthecollapseand death of the Byzantine Empire, a state that last- ed for 1,200 yearsand extended, in the period of its greater expansion, from Asia to the Atlantic and from the Russian south to the sands of Northern Africa. 1 This event consti- tutesa historical milestone asit cre- ates once and for all a clear sepa- ration between two totallyopposed systems of social and political or- ganization, between two different civilizations and cultures: Chris- tendom in Western Europe on the one side, the Ottoman Turks, true believers of Mohammed and rulers of the Islamic world, on the other side. These two systems tend to move in the same direction: to the West, Columbus leaves the shores of theIberianpeninsula to reach the Indies navigating westwards; the Turkish sultans and armies move to the Northwest through the Balkans to the Hungarian open fields and to the outskirts of Vienna: the Ot- toman Empire’s dominionsinclude the remote areas closeto China, the infertile lands of Arabia, part of Africa, the Crimean peninsula, the Dalmatian cost south of Trieste. 2 about GREECE200 EDUCATION & CULTURE Greece, due to its geographical position, is, as from the 12 th centu- ry, a land of “passage”,a thorough- fare that links Europe to Asia, the Aegean sea to the Mediterranean, the south of Europe to the Holy Land and from there to the north of Africa. Influences from all parts of Europe and Asia converge in this land: 3 Venice occupies the islands along the Ionian sea as well as Crete and brings its culture to them; many islands of the Aegean sea remain under the rule of Italian noblemen that had privileges on them dating back to the Byzantine emperors; Rhodes is governed by the Knights of Saint-John; the peninsula isunder the Turks, while placeslike Mani in the south of the Peloponnese remain free andother areas live under a quasi-au- tonomous government headed by local Greekrulers.These disparities will wither away in the second half of 17 th century as the Turkish Cres- cent dismantles the Venetian out- posts in the Mediterranean and the European diplomacy recognizes the supremacy of le Grand Turc . These historical events and polit- ical changes leave layers of cultural marks in all areas inhabited by Greek populations. Some exam- ples amongst a variety of others prove that these marks have been the seeds for the growing up of the Greek cultural identity: the theatre in the Ionian islands, in Zakynthos mainly, is an adaptation of the Ital- ian comedia del’ arte ; poetry in Cyprus follows the stereotypes of the Renaissance poets, such as Pe- trarca, succeeding however to pro- mote a genuine love poems tradi- tion; in Crete, the Italian (and quite often the French) heritage is molded within the local fabric giv- ing birth to original literary works such as the tragedy of Erofili by Georgios Hortatzis (1637), the love, hate and war epic of Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros (written prob- ably in 1646 and published in 1713), the comedies and dramas of anonymous masters whose iden- tity is slowly emerging through arduous research that underlines the value of a “Cretan literary school” that goes strong well into the 18 th century. If the cultural influences are suc- cessfully adapted and reworked to fit the Greekvision of the world and of life as well as the aspirations of the people to shake off the Turkish rule, the Orthodox Church whose headquarters remain in Istanbul and the Patriarch of Constantino- ple is considered the spiritual leader of all orthodox laymen with- in and outside the Ottoman Em- pire, tries to fix the dogma, to make it flexible in order to avoid clashes with the authorities, to clarify points of the Holy Scriptures that refute the arguments of the Catholic Church, suspected to work for the conversion of the masses to the papal rule. If this standing strengthens the opposi- tion between the two Churches, it promotes at the same time the conservatism of the Orthodox priests and their strong desire to educate the “enslaved brothers” so that by “science and knowl- edge” they serve their true faith. The longing for education will be- come a standard feature during the whole period of the Ottoman rule: the Patriarch of Constantinople will invest in printing machines as early as the 17 th century, an action that infuriated the Sultan who or- dered his killing. about GREECE 201 LITERATURE Printing moved to Venice and later on to Vienna and Paris. Religious books, historical memoirs, books of comments on Ancient Greek authors, propaganda material and pamphlets on social and political issues, manuals of conduct, works on the modern Greek grammar, vo- cabulary and even orthography, es- says on philosophical concepts, translations of literary works main- ly from Latin, Italian and French constitute an exceptionally rich production that allows ideas and innovative theories to circulate widely. This production relies on a broad basis of “wise” or “knowl- edgeable” persons, educated in Padua, Paris, Mount Athos and the Greek diaspora educational cen- ters supported by the Orthodox Church providing teachers and curricula and by rich benefactors providing lavish financial contribu- tions. As a consequence, this ed- ucated elite will develop and con- solidate two main lines of thought, e.g. that Orthodox Greeks are the descendants of Ancient Greece and that this glorious heritage will be recovered and flourish once the Greek “nation” is liberat- ed from the Turkish slavery. In the second half of the 18 th cen- tury the message for the liberation of the country will spread through- out Europe thanks to this elite. In the first quarter of the 19 th century the “philhellenic” movement, spreadingfrom France and England as far as the U.S.A., will give polit- ical leverage to the aspiration for a liberation war against the Turkish domination. The main centers for the planning and the organization of the national rebirth are the Balkan territories governed by Greeks under special status initiat- ed and implemented bytheSultan. In these territories will be active Rigas Ferraios (1757-1798), preach- ing the revolt against the Turks, drawing up the map of Greece and inviting the Balkan brothers to unite and participate in the liber- ation cause for the creation of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural state. Rigas will compose the famous Anthem asking “brave men not to live any longer under the oppres- sion”. The activity of Rigas, trans- lator at the same time from Italian and French, will displease theTurk- ish and European establishment: he will be arrested in Vienna and given back to the Turkish authori- ties in Belgrade which preferred to strangle him together with some of his supporters. Adamantios Korais(1748-1833) has been luckier: born in Smyrna from a family of merchants having their roots in the island ofChios, he lived in Amsterdam, studied in Montpel- lier, butestablished inParisandhas been the witness of the French Rigas Feraios about GREECE202 EDUCATION & CULTURE Revolution. He was 73 when the War of Liberation of Greece started in 1821, a breakthrough he helped to shape, give it a coherent projec- tion, a senseof conceptual continu- ity and a realistic configuration. His contribution, always in the spirit of a pragmaticliberalism, is still appar- ent, whether one looks at the Mod- ern Greek language development, the philological comments and ex- planations concerning the publica- tion of Ancient Greek texts, the political priorities, the survival and expectations of a reborn Greek state. His prestige has been enor- mous all over Europe; he lived long enough to see the liberation of his beloved country (officially pro- claimed independent in 1830), the “resurrection ofthe Nation” and the first uncertain steps of the modern Greekstatewhose territory included the Peloponnese and a part of the peninsula, the frontier traced 200 kilometers north of Athens. These developments would have never materialize, if there were not a strong and recurrent moral support from the Greekminority liv- ing in Constantinople around the Patriarchate in the area of Fanari (presently Fener) and, at the same time, offering its services to the Ot- toman Empire. Occupying diplo- matic and government highly re- garded posts, in close relation with Europe, eager to maintain and develop its privileges, this minority called “the Fanariots” has been in fact a mini-state within the Empire, a close collaborator of the authorities and simultaneously an independent group, open to ideals coming from Europe, adapting them to the reality of the Empire, giving them a Greek content that helped in putting them quickly into practice. By amalgamating these inputs, the Fanariots lived dangerously: from time to time, the Empire disgraced some them, sent them to exile or decapitated others. The Fanariots, many of them mer- chants established in Trieste, Livorno, Genova, Vienna, Marseille, even India, land owners in Bulgar- ia, Romania, Moldova and the south of Russia, ship-owners sail- ing as far as Montevideo under British, French or Russian flags, capital providers to the Ottoman Empire have not been only the supporters, backers and bankers of the idea of the return to life of the fatherland. Adopting the bour- geois class life-style and priorities, they have been mainly the promot- ers of culture. Thanks to the prolif- eration of newspapers and maga- zines (some of them with a real feminist orientation), the develop- ment of amateur and later on pro- fessional theatrical groups, the spreading of social events related to art manifestations, Constan- tinople andSmyrna became cultur- Adamantios Korais about GREECE 203 LITERATURE al centers of excellence. European literary movements and schools found disciples (or enemies) in these places. A “Fanariotic literary school” was born that introduced romanticism in prose and verses, in epics and feuilleton story telling. If French influences are present, Byron (who died in Greece during the Liberation War) is imitated more or less successfully. The names of PanayotisSoutzos (1806- 1868), who is considered the first modern Greek romantic author, or of Alexander Rizos Rangavis (1809-1892), who develops an in- tellectual-like neo-classical ap- proach to poetry, are examples of the Fanariotic understanding of lit- erature as a litterature de salon . Romanticism willacquire a broader signification and will become a wayoflifeaswell as aschool of aes- thetics and social renewal in the Ionian islands so close to Italy, so long underVenetian rule, so fond of the ideals of the French Revolution (1789) and of social radicalism, so dazzled by Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. After the occupa- tion of Venice by Napoleon, the French armyoccupied the Ionian is- lands and stayed there for almost 20 years (1797-1815). However, ro- manticism was there before the French. A particular kind of roman- ticism blending symbolistic over- tones long before Charles Baude- laire’ sconcept of correspondances between sounds, colours, words linking in a mysticaland quasi-tran- scendental way Nature to the aspi- ration for an out-of-this-world. The leading figures of this roman- ticism are Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857) and Andreas Kalvos (1792-1869), both born in the is- land of Zakynthos. Solomos, the son of a rich old count and a poor young housemaid, was educated in Italy, a usual procedure for the children of the local aristocracy speaking Italian. There he will be initiated to the romantic principles and will compose his first poems. He will continue writing in Italian after his return to Zakynthos in 1818 and a good part of this pro- duction will be published in Corfu ( Rime improvvisate , 1822). It seems that at that time he has started writing in Greek, a lan- guage he has hardly studied or spoken. His Hymn to Liberty , a long poem of 158 quatrains, is the first proof of his mastering the Greek language and the literary mιtier . Written in 1824, when the Libera- tion War was embracing the whole of the Greek peninsula and the Aegean islands, while the Ionian islands were, after the Vienna Congress in 1815 and the with- drawal of the French forces, a British protectorate, the Hymn was widely acclaimed and gave ex- tra strength to the “philhellenic” Dionysios Solomos about GREECE204 EDUCATION & CULTURE movement. Soon, the composer Nicolaos Mantzaros (born in Corfu) put the poem into music and the Greek national anthem was born. Solomos moved to Corfu in 1828 and died there in 1857. No one knew then that Solomos did not stop writing poems (as well as fine- ly elaborated proses) and work ceaselessly on vast lyrical compo- sitions that modern scholars call “sketches”, because they have never got a final touch, they have never been published during the poet’s lifetime, but constitute a patchwork of brilliant inventive- ness and the best sample of the Greek poetical language. Andreas Kalvos is the poet of just 20 lyrical Odes , half of them pub- lished in Geneva in 1824, the rest in Paris two years later (1826). An introverted and sensitive person, he lived in Italy and Switzerland, worked as a university professor in Corfu and then left for England, where he married and managed a young girls’ school with his wife. His poems are a blend of romantic enthusiasm and melancholy, a real commitment to the struggle for the liberation of Greece, a call for a moral standing under difficult cir- cumstances. Kalvos created his own poetical language and tech- nique, a unique phenomenon that relates his inspiration to the an- cient times, to an aristocratic standing, to the rejection of any or- namentation. The dryness of his lyrism has the monotony and the thrill of a Walkyrie-like cavalcade. The independence of Greece and the choice of the city of Athens as the capital of the country drew the literary forces from the periphery (Constantinople or the Ionian is- lands) to this new center so much burdened by its glorious past. There is an “Athenian literary school” which promoted a late romanticism, quarreled about lit- erary styles and, more important, about the language to be used in literature: a vocabulary close to the ancient Greek? Avocabulary based on the spoken language which had given anonymous folkloric songs (called “demotic poetry”) of high value during the centuries of Turkish occupation? A language like the one produced by Korais, a “middle of the road path”? The so called “language problem” will plague the intellectual and political life of the country and it will be solved more than 150 years later by government decision in favor of the spoken language, the result of the evolution of Ancient Greek en- riched by foreign vocables, Turkish and French, Slavic and English, German to a lesser degree. An outstanding example of this os- mosis is the work of Yannis Makriyannis (1797-1864), a general of the Liberation War, an illiterate soldier who, at the age of 32 learned how to write and decided to present his Memoirs , the text of an eye-witness that goes to the heart of the events, a kind of mise ` a nu where the best and the worse of human behavior are given equal chances, the general keeping the role of the story-teller and of hon- est commentator and judge. This text remained unknown up to 1907. Its publication did not arise the interest of the intellectuals or the scholars. It is Giorgos Seferis (poet and Nobel Prize laureate) that 60years later, revealed the im- portance of Makryiannis, the “illit- erate master” as he called him. about GREECE 205 LITERATURE By 1880, a “new” Athenian literary school will emerge. Emmanuel Roidis (1836-1904) is its prominent representative. Born in the island of Syros, educated in Genova and established in Athens after 1863, he is a unique figure in Greek let- ters as he combines a cosmopol- itan spirit with a deep understand- ing of daily life in the small Greek kingdom. His Papess Johanna is the narration of a medieval story relating the life and adventures of Johanna, a young and pretty woman which succeeds in occupy- ing Saint Peter’ s throne in Rome, becoming a “papess”. Alfred Jarry in France and Laurence Durrell in England have been those who gave publicity to this novel outside Greece forgetting on the way to re- mind the name of the author. This work must not put aside the short stories written by Roidis, excellent samples of realism and social satire. In the “new” Athenian literary school belongs Kostis Palamas (1859-1943), an extremely produc- tive poet, fiction writer, critic and playwright. His inspiration is em- bracing national, personal and re- ligious themes,hisversatilityallows him to pass from the one genre to the other in a kind of mystique that reminds Victor Hugo, in a melancholical sotto voce close to Lamartine,ina patrioticenthusiasm where Antiquity, the opposition to the Turkish occupation and the “Great Idea” ofGreece pushed by its dutytoreconquertheByzantineglo- ry and recover lost territories, are closelyrelated.This outlinemustnot hide the great contribution of Pala- mas to the foundation of a real na- tional literary environment, away form a sterile and complacent ro- manticism, very close to the devel- opment of moral values and of the idea that the writer has a mission within society: to help it improve. Kostis Palamas’ statue about GREECE206 EDUCATION & CULTURE The same high value attributed to literature is visible in Georgios Vizyinos (1849-1896) prose. Vizyi- nos who studied philosophy and psychology in Germany is the rep- resentative of a new trend in Greek literature that gives consistence and physiological depth to the characters created by the author’ s imagination. He is known today for his fictions that have a real “mod- ernistic” touch and they are written in a concise but staccato style that leaves romanticism aside privileg- ing the meanders of the soul. In the same context, Alexander Papadiamantis (1851-1911) is a true explorer of the provincial and Athenian life, a personality that suf- fers watching the human medioc- rity but has enough stamina to de- scribe it in all details, without for- getting that “the beast is not away from the angel” and that life is a kaleidoscope allowing bright im- ages to form. In all his fictions and novels, Papadiamantis puts for- ward Freudian problems (before Freud) either concealed or exposed in full view, a psychoanalytic ap- proach that makes acts and words seem natural, the light of the Greek climate not allowing things to settle in gloominess and rust in darkness. There is a thirst for life that revig- orates the reader and a sense of unstable but manageable peace that gives a unique touch to the writer’s art. Papadiamantis lived with little money writing for news- papers and magazines. His Com- plete Works in a critical edition ap- peared in 1981-1985. Since then, many scholars and authors (in- cluding Milan Kundera) tend to put Papadiamantis in the tradition of the great European romanciers . Poetry recovers a new start with Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), a poet born in Alexandria (Egypt) where he lived making a living as a low level public servant. He used to work meticulously on his verses and print periodically at his own expenses the so-called “loose leaves” introducing some of his poems to an audience he selected himself. These publications form a kind of chronological (and some- times thematic) units. Their reprints present notable changes as some poems are re-worked, others are eliminated and replaced by new ones. The canon of Cavafy’ s works includes 107 poems com- posed in the course of more than 35 years. Scholars divide them in three categories: philosophical, historical and sensual, where the homosexuality ofthe poet emerges in the middle of melancholic over- tones and a wording that reveals while it conceals. This parallel game of introverted-extroverted approach is a constant parameter in Cavafy’ s style. His poems bring in mind Fernando Pessoa’s (a Cavafy’s contemporary) works full of desasosiego (disillusionment). Constantine Cavafy about GREECE 207 LITERATURE Cavafy belongs to a particular lit- erary category that emerged in the first quarter of the 20th century and had no continuation: this is a “stand alone” category in which one could put Kafka and Joyce, Kavafy and Pessoa. Kavafy’ s poetry is in full contrast with that of Angelos Sikelianos (1884-1951), another lyrical poet of the same period that succeeded in moving romanticism beyond tra- ditional boundaries thanks to his recreation of ancient Greek myths andlegends in elegies, long poetical compositions and theatrical plays that he liked to call “tragedies”. A visionary that brought back to life the Delphic celebrations (1927), an effort that has been acclaimed but collapsed financially. After the Paris Commune (1871) and the emergence of socialism, the vision of a just, moral and equalitarian society took a literary shape. This is the canvas for the poems and the fiction works of Kostas Varnalis (1884-1974) who faithful to the communist ideals has been rewarded with the Lenin Prize. Varnalis is the representative of a literary movement that brings to the forefront the social injustice, the bourgeois ideology decline, the expectations nourished by social- ism and the revolution. In the same framework, Konstantinos Theotokis (1872-1923) born in Cor- fu in a wealthy and aristocratic family, an admirer of Nietzsche, is a true believer and a systematic promoter of socialism (and com- munism). His novels describe in a realistic way and in a vigorous style that reminds Tolstoi or Dos- toievsky the ups and downs of ex- emplary characters whether they belong to the upper social strata or to a particular Greek proletariat liv- ing mainly in the country. Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), a prolific andversatile writer, traveler and poet, a follower of Henri Berg- son’ s theories on the ΄elan vital, is sensitiveto thesocialproblemsand hails the Bolshevik Revolution, but turns soon to a metaphysical and existentialistic search of a spiritual apotheosis, the result of a contin- uous struggle to overcome the “earthy”bonds. Although Kazantza- kis tries to give a solid form to a philosophical system out of these ideas (hisbook SalvatoresDei pub- lished in 1927 encompasses his philosophy), he has been interna- tionally recognised thanks to his novels, Zorba the Greek (1946) be- ing the mostwidely known. Howev- er, all his novels (and in fact all his books) are supposed to be a by- workofa huge epicof 33,333 verses Nikos Kazantzakis about GREECE208 EDUCATION & CULTURE entitled Odyssey a “remake” of the Homeric epic, Ulysses being a desesperado that leaves Ithaca af- ter his return and continues his peregrinations that bring him to complete loneliness climaxing in his death in the South Pole. Away from this kind of intellectual constructions, Kostas Karyotakis (1896-1928), an obscure public servant who committed suicide in strict obedience to his pessimism and his visceral rejection of social rules that degrade the individual and lead him to despair, is the link between thedeclining romanticism and the modernistic trends. A gen- uine representative of intimism and d΄ecadence, a follower of Jean Morιas and Jules Laforgue, he cre- ated a poetic fashion that survived for a long time and is perceptible even in contemporary poets’ works. Greek literature enters modernism with the so-called “generation of 1930”.Thetraumaticexperiences of the First World War, of the defeat of the Greek army in the war with Turkey in 1922 that pushed more than 1,5 million refugees from Asia Minor into the Greek peninsula in- habited then by 6 million inhabi- tants, the emergence of a liberal bourgeoisclassinfluenced byWest- ernEurope’ scultural and civilisation developments, the formation of an urban proletariat, these are the main drivers that opened new hori- zons to literature. Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971) is the leading figure of this generation. A career diplomat, verydemandingforhimself,crafting withpatience andaccuracyhisvers- es, hewasawarded the Nobel Prize in1963. Carefully studying and put- ting forward the Greek historical and literary heritage, he isaware of the contribution of high caliber au- thors of his time. An admirer and translator of T. S. Elliot and Pound, Val΄eryand Michaux, he adapted and incorporated new literary trends in his poetry collections published in 1961 in afinaleditionunderthesim- ple title Poems. Seferis declared in an interview that his ultimate goal wasto write simplyand he kept this promise.If thefirst contactgivesthe impression that he is a difficult poet,his clart΄e pops up quickly.This isthereasonwhy many ofhispoems put in music by leading song com- posers like ManosHadjidakis,Mikis Theodorakis,StavrosXarchakosand others have become and remain popular. If in a way Seferisisclose to the sur- realists, Andreas Embirikos (1901- 1975)istheemblematic figureofsur- realism in Greece. Belonging to a wealthy family of ship-owners, he studied in France and introduced psychoanalysis in Greece. His first collection of poems, Furnace, ap- peared in 1935 (the same year Se- Odysseus Elytis [...]... of today) and struggles to modernize Literature seems surprised by these changes and makes efforts to adapt It will need a generation before a new group of authors appears This group, composed by very young people, male and female, rejecting the traumas and wounds of the LITERATURE past tries to talk about the present Although this trend has been visible in all literatures around the world, it acquires... into future best-selling expectations, normally not fulfilled Literature seems a kind of short dis- 212 about GREECE tance running competition, in which men and women, all having the same technique, attract the applause of the public If many critics and dilettanti complain that this is a bad omen for the years to come, the reality is that Greek literature is geared to the present The phenomenon is not... reserves for himself the role of the bard, fighting for the dignity of the individual Looking at Seferis, Embirikos, Elytis, Ritsos, one is tempted to admit that poetry is the main genre in the Greek literature of most of the 20th century Novels, short stories, theatre plays are there; however, at a distance, they do not have the punch neither the aura of poetry Prose writing babbles, remains didactic... in a massive internal immigration from the countryside to the main urban areas and to a more important immigration to all parts of Europe (mainly Germany and Belgium), Australia, Canada and the U.S.A Literature turned to a litterature en΄ ΄ gagee approach and style and offered its potential to the objectives of lofty ideals such as fraternity and to values that help humans to live in peace These tendencies... have been established by liberal minded authors (for this reason labeled “communists” and sent to exile, tortured or simply executed) so much so that one comes easily to the conclusion that the Greek literature after 1945 is best represented by the Left (a term that includes practically liberals, communists, anarchists and apolitical authors sympathetic to social questions) In poetry, Manolis Anagnostakis.. .LITERATURE feris published his first verses) The titles of his poems, like “Angels presence in a vapor machine” or “The vibrations of a tie”, gave the chance to the literary establishment of that time... around the world, it acquires a particular significance in Greece as it coincides with consumerism that understands writing and book buying as a consumer move without any idealistic or political projection Literature explodes in this context: writing in itself becomes an opposition act in the sense of a revolt against an ill-defined “tradition” or “establishment” that seems to be an obstacle towards justice... to the same literary trend that could be called “the small group of not very seriously angry young men but very seriously uneasy young men”, a translator of Fowles and close to the British culture and literature, is a remarkable observer of a paralyzed and stagnated society that does not allow adolescence to flourish If these are clear signs of a literary “search of the self” within a changing environment,... Yannis Ritsos (1909-1997), a gifted versificator, the second Greek Lenin Prize (1977) and a committed communist that lived long years in forced political exile, is the most prolific poet of modern Greek literature Able to compose a whole collection of poems in few weeks, he plays with all forms, lets himself improvise on a single theme, reverts to a rhetoric that sounds like a series of slogans Giorgos . attributed to literature is visible in Georgios Vizyinos (1849-1896) prose. Vizyi- nos who studied philosophy and psychology in Germany is the rep- resentative of a new trend in Greek literature. rejecting the traumas and wounds of the about GREECE 211 LITERATURE pasttries to talkabout the present. Although this trendhasbeenvisible inallliteraturesaround theworld,it acquires a particularsignificance. art manifestations, Constan- tinople andSmyrna became cultur- Adamantios Korais about GREECE 203 LITERATURE al centers of excellence. European literary movements and schools found disciples (or