The militant subject as tragic hero in Dimitris Nollas’s fiction

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the militant subjects in Dimitris Nollas’s fiction and considers them as tragic heroes that occupy liminal positions. Political violence, as a contested tactical option of militancy, posits pressing dilemmas and generates intricate explorations of morality and agency. After sketching a brief theoretical framework in order to assess recent theories of the tragic, I focus on the novella To Pempto Genos / The Fifth Age (Nollas, 1988) and the novel O Anthropos pou Xehastike / The Man in Limbo (Nollas, 1995) in terms of conflictual memory frames and ethical stances. Although they present similarities on the thematic level, a close reading of the texts elucidates the different approaches taken towards the militant past from the present standpoint and, consequently, the divergent implications for the future.