2017 Special Issue of Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand) - Living in a Cultural Wilderness
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
1 - 6 of 20
-
ItemΚαβάφης: Εντάσεις δια-φθοράς(Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2017)Please note: This article is in Greek. Kavafis: The tensions of “corruption”: In Kavafi’s poetry, there are many poems where historical or anonymous characters are corrupted or are going through the process of corrupting themselves or others. This becomes particularly important regarding most of his poems dealing with painting. The frequency of references to corruption raises many questions: aesthetic, historical, psychological, philosophical etc. Most importantly: in the process of composing a poem, how is the poetic language corrupting the poet and how does language corrupt itself? Within the overarching theme of “corruption”, another important issue is discussed: the decay of human body (including death) and the spectacular and mysterious decadence of the ancient Greek world (In Greek corruption is diafthora and decay pthora). But above everything else, this paper is trying to respond to a “provocative” assessment by Kavafis: “I am not sure if perversion empowers someone. Sometimes I think so. But it is certain that corruption is the source of greatness”.
-
ItemΕυρωπαϊκές Ανθολογίες Ελληνικής Ποίησης την Περίοδο του Μεσοπολέμου. Μια Πρώτη Ανάγνωση(Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2017)Please note: This article is in Greek. European anthologies of Greek poetry during the interwar period. A first reading: During the Decade 1920–1930 the Greek poetry, specially represented by C. Palamas, whose poems had been translated in English, became widely known in Europe and overseas. So, some European literati edited anthologies of modern Greek poets. The French essayist and poet Jean Michel, the Austrian journalist Josef Kalmer and the German philologist and historian Karl Dieterich were among them. This paper presents the above anthologists and their anthologies, the more, unknown till now. Although these anthologists attempted to present a panorama of the modern Greek poetry from the first poetic collection of C. Palamas in 1886 till 1930, they are far beyond from their initial purposes, because of their very subjective criteria. Besides it becomes obvious that they do not know well C. Caryotakis and the neoromantismus, which prevailed in modern Greek literature of the period released their anthologies.
-
ItemΔιάλογος και Ειρωνεία: Ερμηνευτική Προσέγγιση της Ποίησης του Άρι Κουτούγκου(Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2017)Please note: This article is in Greek. Dialogue and Irony: Hermeneutical Approach of Aris Koutoungos’ Poetry: This paper aims to provide an overview of Aris Koutoungos’ recently published poetry by emphasising on the development of its principal characteristics. On the one hand, it examines the dialogue with other Greek poets — especially Cavafy, Seferis, Solomos, Sachtouris — and different arts, like painting, music and cinema. On the other hand, it analyses the constant use of irony, which leads to the creation of a notable poetical language. By focusing on the analysis of his first two poetical works (2011, 2014) it is possible not only to examine the artistic voyage of the quantitative and qualitative transformations of the above, namely from the epidermal poetical dialogue to the most creative, and from the single level irony to the demanding irony, but also to trace the origins of the deepest anthropological meaning of Koutoungos’ poetry.
-
ItemThe Gothic Elements in Grigorios Xenopoulos’ Novel Teresa Varma-Dakosta(Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2017)The purpose of the paper is mainly to pinpoint, examine and elaborate on the Gothic elements that are disseminated in Grigorios Xenopoulos’ novel Teresa Varma-Dakosta. Teresa’s physical and mental transformation is connected to the Count Varmas’ old house because this place has a negative effect on her as it provokes a sense of fear and extreme anxiety. Moreover, the medieval environment of the house brings to the surface her latent abominable desires that can lead her to murder. The only thing that remains unchanged after living in the old palace is Teresa’s political and social beliefs. Being aristocrat by nature, she believes that the French Revolution was pointless and she is convinced that what is right by nature can be re-established. Teresa’s intricate personality, which is revealed in the Gothic ambience of the old house, concentrates several traits of the male villains of the traditional Gothic novels.
-
ItemΤο Παράδοξο της Άπειρης Ταυτότητας στον Νάνο Βαλαωρίτη(Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2017)Please note: This article is in Greek. The Paradox of Infinite Identity in Nanos Valaoritis: The subject of Nanos Valaoritis’ writing is investigated through the theses of Whitehead and Deleuze on the construction of an infinite identity with binary direction, future and historic, passive and active, causal and effective. The paradox of this identity is that language itself exceeds the limits and restores them in an endless balancing of a limitless becoming, resulting in the loss (reversal) of the name. The personal uncertainty is an objective structure of the “pure Event”, to the extent that it is moving in two directions simultaneously, thus fragmenting the subject to capture the “New”. The event, along with the extension, the intension and the appearance of eternal objects, creates the conception of the New, which includes the form, the subjective aim (transitivity), and satisfaction (production of New, playable models, “counter-effectuation”), thus explaining the process of the unconscious, the humorous and “deterritorialised” in Valaoritis’ writing.
-
ItemIndustrialisation, the Sewing Machine, and the Paper Pattern: Mixed Messages for the Heritage of Kendimata(Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2017)Modern Greece embraced the new Western European approach to dress and culture through the industrialisation of textiles. The new technology of the sewing machine and paper pattern were adopted with great enthusiasm to show the rest of Europe that Greece was part of Western Europe. At the same time Western Europe became enamoured with Greek kendimata, which were highly sought after in the western world. Greece straddled the mixed messages of a newly industrialised country forming its national European identity alongside the tradition of kendimata as an essential part of its national cultural heritage