The Politics of Writing: Greek Historiographic Metafiction and Maro Douka's A Cap of Purple

Abstract

By focusing on a close textual and intertextual analysis of Maro Douka's [Greek for A Cap of Purple] (A Cap of Purple), this article explores the broader cultural and literary conditions of the re-appearance of the historical novel in the form of "historiographic metafiction" in Greece in the 1980s and 1990s. The article argues that, far from contributing to a "disinterested literary escapism," the narrative strategies employed in Greek examples of historiographic metafiction articulate a critical commentary both on traditional modes of historiography and literary composition, and on contemporary political debates.