Never to return: migration and old age in Venezis’s “The State of Virginia”
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Date
2013-06
Authors
Dova, Stamatia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Flinders University Department of Language Studies - Modern Greek
Rights
All rights reserved. Subject to the copyright act of 1968, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying or recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
copyright owner.
Rights Holder
Flinders University Department of Language Studies - Adelaide 2013
Abstract
This paper discusses Ilias Venezis’s short story “The State of Virginia” with special
emphasis on the themes of migration and old age. Published in 1954, in the aftermath
of WWII and the Greek Civil War, “The State of Virginia” captures the drama of an
elderly woman victim of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, as she is migrating to Virginia,
U.S.A. after thirty years of temporary residence in a refugee village in rural Attica. My
analysis focuses on the protagonist’s reluctant migration as it emerges from the farewell
scene between her and her life-long friend; their conversation on the irreversibility of
their separation, the challenges facing elderly migrants, and the significance of native
soil voices an insightful discourse on belonging and rootedness that transcends many
socio-temporal limits.
Description
Keywords
Greek research, Greece, Australia
Citation
Dova, S., 2013. Never to return: migration and old age in Venezis’s “The State of Virginia”. In M. Tsianikas, N. Maadad, G. Couvalis, and M. Palaktsoglou (eds.) "Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University June 2011", Flinders University Department of Language Studies - Modern Greek: Adelaide, 208-220.