Modern Greek Poetry Research Articles

The Rehearsal of Misunderstanding: Three Collections by Contemporary Greek Women Poets: "The Cake" by Rhea Galanaki, "Tales of the Deep" by Jenny Mastoraki, "Hers" by Maria Laina

Reviewed by: The Rehearsal of Misunderstanding: Three Collections by Contemporary Greek Women Poets: "The Cake" by Rhea Galanaki, "Tales of the Deep" by Jenny Mastoraki, "Hers" by Maria Laina, and: Lethe's Adolescence Gail Holst-Warhaft Karen Van Dyck , editor and translator, The Rehearsal of Misunderstanding: Three Collections by Contemporary Greek Women Poets: "The Cake" by Rhea Galanaki, "Tales of the Deep" by Jenny Mastoraki, "Hers" by Maria Laina. Hanover, New Hampshire and London: University Press of New England/Wesleyan University Press. 1998. Pp. 294. $16.95 paperback, $45.00 cloth. Kiki Dimoula . Lethe's Adolescence. Translated and with an introduction by David Connolly. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Nostos. 1996. Pp. 84. $25.00 cloth. The appearance in English translation of collections of poems by four of Greece's leading poets is a cause for celebration, and not just because the poets happen to be women. Greek has been fortunate, among the less commonly spoken languages of Europe, in attracting excellent translators. It might be argued that the quality of the poetry attracted the translators, but there is also the undeniable influence of a background in ancient Greek that made the language of modern Greek poetry, its physical setting, and its subject matter more appealing to a generation of English and American translators than, say, the poetry of modern Poland. The fascination of modern Greek poetry was, at least until the 1960s, part of a broader phenomenon. It was a love affair that began with the philhellenes and lasted as long as Greek poets continued to write about what had attracted foreigners to Greece in the first place—continuity with an ancient, hallowed past, and a dramatic, sun-drenched landscape. When modern Greek poets stopped writing about these themes, it was harder to interest non-Greek readers in their work. How were poets writing about urban anomie, drugs, sex, men, adolescence, and death still distinctively Greek, and did it matter any more? Feminism stimulated some translators to render the works of previously unknown Greek women writers; literary connections and fluency in foreign languages helped other poets to find their translators. Occasionally a poet's work attracted the attention of a translator for qualities that had little to do with where it was written. An interest in feminist poetics certainly affected Karen Van Dyck's choice of poets, but so did an interest in issues that are not specific to women writers. Her anthology is a companion volume to her book Kassandra and the Censors: Greek Poetry Since 1967 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1998), in [End Page 192] which she explores the effects of censorship imposed by the authoritarian regime of 1967-1974 on the practice and strategies of writing, particularly on the women writers who began their literary careers during those years. As she says in her introduction to the anthology, Van Dyck's title The Rehearsal of Misunderstanding refers to the "proliferation of double entendres, obscure references and indirect constructions in the three individual collections" as well as to "the challenges facing writers in Greece under and after the dictatorship" (xvi). Van Dyck contends that poets who had established themselves before the dictatorship, and who imposed various forms of censorship on themselves in protest against the regime, returned to their familiar style of writing once the dictatorship ended. Younger writers, however, particularly the three women poets of her anthology, continued to use strategies that articulated and subverted other structures of power and authority. "For Galanaki, Mastoraki and Laina," Van Dyck maintains, " the challenge to authority became a feminist problem in the late 1970's and early 1980's" (xviii). Van Dyck's thesis may not be an essential background for reading these three poets, but her introduction carefully situates the writers in a political and literary landscape, one that encourages us to view the often exasperating obscurity of the poems as a necessary "rehearsal of misunderstanding." To understand is not necessarily to admire. I must confess that of the poems in this anthology only a handful seem to me likely to endure as literature. Rhea Galanaki has established herself as a successful novelist, and it is her narrative skill that helps hold the fragments of poetry in this anthology...

The Shade of Homer: A Study in Modern Greek Poetry (review)

Reviews 167 Our dead . . . [are] indifferent to honey-liquor, votive offerings, futile glory. Better a plain stone and a pot of geraniums, a secret sign, or even nothing at all. For safety's sake, we might do well to hold them inside us if we can, or better still, not even know where they lie. The way things have turned out in our time, who knows, we ourselves might dig them up, throw them out someday. ("The Tombs of Our Ancestors," 67) It's hard not to understand such a passage as a gloss on Ritsos's work as a whole—those innumerable shards, gems, or sketches, wistful or surreal, pretty or brutal. Read together, so many short poems can come to feel unambitious , a set of glib variations on a theme. It is therefore a revelation when, in a poem like "The Apples of the Hesperides I" (a mere fourteen long lines, but by Ritsos's miniaturist scale it feels much longer), a key to the mass of this oeuvre glints out at us, in the guise of comment on a myth. I have space to quote only the end of this marvelous poem, an end which seems to evoke not a shopworn stoa of battered statues but the modest meticulousness of an Elizabeth Bishop: This little bit of cunning, so human, which had overcome the malevolence of Atlas, brought the whole myth down to our measure, giving it at the same time a certain indefinite and intimate lighting, an almost aesthetic radiance. (78) "Indefinite and intimate": the phrase perfectly captures Ritsos's agile balance between the portentous and the personal, the vatic and the informal. Keeley has gathered in this volume poems which, to the credit of both anthologist and poet, cast an indefinite but also an intimate light on one another. Rachel Hadas Rutgers University, Newark David Ricks, The Shade of Homer: A Study in Modern Greek Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. xi + 192. $42.50. This study aims to define more sharply what Dimitris Nikolarei'zis meant when he said: "Homer's poetry is present in the contemporary Greek poetic consciousness" (1947). Then term parousta, with its religious connotations, can allow too much talk about the "spirit" of Homer. Thus Seferis could observe of "the antiquity-obsessed Athens of 1860" that "in spite of the endless racket about them, the ancients are nowhere to be found." David Ricks concerns himself not with the mere aspirations or gestures of poets (though he may 168 Reviews note these) but essentially with their work in itself. His study is centered upon three major poets, Sikelianos, Cavafy and Seferis, as revealed in their verse between 1892 and 1940. Dr. Ricks's chosen limits coincide with a great era of modern poetry throughout Europe. He provides "a series of close, even strenuous readings" devoted to short poems (hence, the Odyssey of Kazantzákis has no place here). The poems, examined with tact and rigor, are seen in the context of a developing tradition, where the interplay between contemporary poems is no less important than their relation to Homeric text (not merely Homeric myth). The three Ionian poets, Kalvos, Solomos and—illuminatingly brought into the argument—Ugo Foseólo, belong to the prehistory of the subject. Palamas, for all his excellence, failed to engage truly with Homer, though his adoption as a persona of the bard Phimios from the Odyssey, with a divine gift that incapacitates him for action, was clearly suggestive to Seferis. Sikelianos, younger than Cavafy, precedes him in this book, since Cavafy does not participate in the mainstream tradition. Very important for Ricks's theme are Sikelianos's "Yannis Keats" which so brilliantly comes to terms with the Hellenism of the 19th-century European romantics, guiding Keats into a kind of Telemachy. "Achelous" goes "beyond Homer" to reshape the river episode in Iliad 21 as a myth better suited to Sikelianos's glorifying of the imagination. In "Secret Iliad" he forsakes Homeric allusion for Pindar, whose supposed "free verse" sends him on the slippery path to Whitman. Palamas had celebrated his rootlessness in The Gipsy; Sikelianos claimed that Homer was present in his own Lefkadian landscape. Cavafy...

The Collected Poems of Nikos Kavadias (review)

150 Reviews concealed, one characterized by gestures, noddings, and expressions. Bearing the signs of Valaoritis's struggle for identity, it is a language marked by occupation, sterility, loss, and endurance. Valaoritis is the poet of an indefinite longitude and latitude. His writing conveys several meanings. Sentences are hypnotic: these "imaginary sentences without words" that fuse one into another , keeping us between sleep and awakening, as, for instance, in the texts "a terrace is a man's only love" and "Borisofski's lair." In "How I Wrote Some of my Books" and "Simoon," writing becomes an asteroid infected by cosmic energy. I would like to suggest that not only this book but Valaoritis's entire oeuvre should be studied. It is time to reexamine the Greek avant garde. We must also study the work of other authors such as N. Kalas, A. Schinas, M. Aravantinou, Y. Makris, N. Stangos, P. Koutroubousis, P. Takopoulos, E. Vakalo, and A. Pagoulatos, to name a few. Such a study would enable us to view contemporary Greek literature from other perspectives, suggesting further theoretical complexities for the conception of a peripheral literature. Panayiotis Bosnakis The Ohio State University Nikos Kavadias, The Collected Poems ofNikos Kavadias. Translated by Gail Hoist Warhaft. Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert. 1987. Pp. 256. $16.80. Cavafy's canon of 154 poems established him as a world-class poet. Kavadias's canon is but one-third of Cavafy's, yet the 53 short poems that comprise his life work, because of their brilliance, variety, and, at the same time, their unmistakable sameness as cumulative projections of a fascinating personality, establish him, too, as a poet who deserves to be appreciated everywhere. Previously, we had just a handful of fine translations by Kimon Friar in his Modern Greek Poetry (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973). Now, Gail Hoist Warhaft's volume, with its bilingual format, its biographical note, introduction, and occasional annotations, makes Kavadias's entire oeuvre available to English-speaking readers. O Είκος Καββαδίας went to sea in his teens in 1929 and continued as a radio officer until his death in 1975. His first collection, Μαϕαμποϕ (1933; Marabou) was a literary sensation; it and the second collection, Ποϕσι (1947; Fog), had sold over 12,000 copies by the year of his death, when Traverso was published posthumously along with a handful of playful poems written for his young nephew Philip. Thus Kavadias's career spans the period when Greek poetry was being revitalized in different ways by Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos, Sikelianos, and also by Cavafy, who did not become a real influence until after his death in 1933. Kavadias is so startlingly vital because he is unlike each of these others. How refreshing to encounter an oeuvre that does not agonize Reviews 151 over the nature of Greekness (Seferis), does not wax euphoric over the Aegean, sing the heroism of Albania, or amalgamate the Byzantine and modern traditions (Elytis), is not energized by political repression (Ritsos), and couldn't care less about a revival of pagan mysticism (Sikelianos). Kavadias does sometimes suggest Cavafy (seasoned with a dash of Karyotakis) since each is a master of irony and each exploits degradation in the interests of beauty, but his voice is entirely his own. In his later poems, too, he suggests the Greek surrealists. Yet Warhaft's observation is acute when she equates him not with any established figure but instead with the anonymous lyricists of rebetika songs, who "expressed many of the same emotions, and with a similar mixture of humour and sadness" (18). Well known for her earlier study of rebetika, Warhaft finds in Kavadias, similarly, the voice of an outsider. . . . Like Baudelaire, . . . Kavadias was an observer of degradation and exoticism, but he was not simply an observer. He lived the life he was describing and sinned with the sinners, and yet . . . [his] falls from grace were "angelic." Surrounded by his fellow-sailors telling crude tales, or by prostitutes hawking their wares, Kavadias dreamed of unattainable women . . . , chastising himself for his weakness and extending his compassion to his fellowsinners . (25) Notwithstanding their variety, Kavadias's poems combine to project a personality who travels compulsively as an escape from despair—" 'Injourneys the greatest grief is hidden', / and...

Έλληνες ποιητές και πεζογράφοι (review)

Reviews Costas M. Proussis. Κώστας M. Πϕουσής, Έλληνες ποιητÎ-Ï‚ και πεζογϕάφοι. Athens: Estia. 1990. Pp. 416. 1,800 drachmas. Costas M. Proussis has been a student, critic, and advocate of modern Greek literature for a very long time. Born in Cyprus in 1911, a graduate of the University of Athens who earned a Ph.D. in classical philology from the University of Chicago, former honorary Consul of Cyprus in Boston, he has taught in Cyprus and in the United States, has edited Meléti KritikÃ-, Kipriaká Grámmata, among others, and has written for newspapers and journals in Cyprus, Athens, and America, in both Greek and English. He has published Porta Zots (Course of Life, 1975—a collection of essays), Mikri AgonÃ-a (A Small Struggle, 1980—a collection of short stories), and now a collection of critical essays ranging over the whole body of modern Greek poetry and prose. These essays date from 1935 to 1977 and are a very interesting record of one man's reading of modern Greek literature over a period of almost fifty years. Yet another volume is anticipated that will include the author's observations to date. Greek Poets and Prose Writers is a rich collection of essays by a literary critic whose love of and support for the demotic Greek language has been longstanding—even pioneering. The five sections of the collection are grouped primarily by authors. The first is concerned with Dionisios Solomos, to whom four essays (13-77) are dedicated that stress Solomos's concern for country, religion, love, and the universal theme of freedom. Proussis sees Solomos as a champion of demotic and a national poet, but also as the father of modern Greek prose and satire. The second section (81—139) clearly shows Proussis's love for RostÃ-s Palamás, in whom is recreated all of Greek history. Proussis cites Solomos's comment: "Enclose Greece in your heart and you will feel within you the yearning for every kind of grandeur" (84), which is what Proussis sees Palamás as doing. Ancient, Byzantine, and modern Greece are all blended triumphantly in the poetry of Palamás. Noteworthy, too, is Palam ás's praise of woman—woman as the source of life and beauty, as priestess of love and Muse who inspires and leads to great ideals, as Woman-Mother, as source of spiritual creation, woman as body and instinct, woman as Idea and heavenly Peace, woman as pure virgin. But most of all Palamas is seen as the poet of the Greek race because he is the conscience of the Greek people. The third section contains essays on Yánnis Gripáris, Andréas Kálvos, SotÃ-ris SkÃ-pis, Lámbros PorfÃ-ras, Kóstas Kariotákis, and NÃ-kos Kazantzákis. In Grypáris Proussis finds a creative intoxication, antimystical in attitude, that Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Volume 10, 1992. 145 146 Reviews tends toward an aristocratic form, brilliant and tranquil, although Grypáris himself saw his greatest contributions in translation, especially in the translation of all of Aeschylus into a modern Greek that was powerfully expressive and vibrant. Andréas Kálvos Proussis considers a great poet, separated from the mainstream of Greek literature, initially unsure of his own Greek but the greatest encomiast of freedom and virtue, and defender of democratic ideals. SotÃ-ris Skipis is briefly praised for his rich poetic construction, devoted to the courageous preservation of the people in highly adverse conditions. Lámbros PorfÃ-ras is presented briefly as describing that which is humble and unimportant with the grace and the gentle melancholy of a sensitive nostalgic individual. Kariotákis, despite his tragic nature and situation, is seen as a representative of his times who had a liberating influence on the course of modern Greek literature. The three essays on Kazantzákis ("On the Occasion of the Odyssey of NÃ-kos Kazantzákis"; "The Dramas of NÃ-kos Kazantzákis"; "The Kazantzákis 'Problem' ") are especially interesting because they were written so close to the time of Kazantzákis's own writing and show a remarkable understanding of Kazantzákis's own work that was not characteristic of Greeks of the time. Proussis sees Kazantz...

The Oxford Colloquium on Orality in Medieval and Modern Greek Poetry: Introduction

A colloquium under the above title was held in Oxford on May 12–13, 1989, under the auspices of the British association of university teachers of Modern Greek studies known as SCOMGIU (Standing Committee on Modern Greek in the Universities). The following articles represent a selection of the papers given at this colloquium, some printed with minimal alterations (thus preserving some traces of their oral performance) and others extensively rewritten.

Musicality in Modern Greek Poetry 1900–1930

In the late nineteenth century in France, a division arose between two concepts of poetry: poetry as a distinct form of expression, and poetry as a distinct form of perception. In the former the musicality of the poem was a primary feature: in the latter the aural value of the text was relatively unimportant.

CHAROS, CHARUN, CHARON

Summary. An Athenian head‐vase by the potter Sotades, depicting a grim and emaciated old man, is interpreted as representing the demon Charos, a threatening death‐figure familiar from medieval and modern Greek poetry as well as traditional folklore but hitherto undocumented in Greek art. Charun is shown to be the Etruscan derivate of Charos, whose rarity can perhaps be explained by the success of the less frightening (because euphemistic) Charon.

Modern Greek Poetry: Voice and Myth

Modern Greek Poetry: Voice and Myth

Sex Roles in Modern Greek Poetry

Sex Roles in Modern Greek Poetry

Dionysios Solomos: The Tree of Poetry

AbstractDionysios Solomos is a poet of contradictions. The fact is not often admitted either by his supporters or his occasional detractors. But there is a puzzling ambiguity about the poet which is only exacerbated by the labels that have been tied round his neck. Solomos, we are told, is one of the European Romantics, he is the father of modern Greek poetry, an epic poet manque.

Modern Greek Poetry

Modern Greek Poetry

Modern Greek Poetry

Modern Greek Poetry

Modern Greek Poetry

Modern Greek Poetry

The Continuity of Hellenism

InThe Twelve Lays of the Gipsy, one of the masterpieces of modern Greek poetry, Palamás puts into the mouth of his Gipsy these words, addressed to the Beautiful Immortals, who symbolize the achievements of ancient Greek civilization:What if you are immortal ? Your life is over,The full life that you lived in full bodily vigourIn the sun and air of the blissful country of your birth.Now there is another sun, another air, and you are onlyApparitions.

Fauriel and Modern Greek Poetry

AN important chapter in the history of modern Greek poetry was opened by Claude-Charles Fauriel.1 He circulated a well-organized body of popular verse, fragments of which were known in western Europe to only a few travellers before him, and, of course, to Goethe.2 Yet modern Greek criticism has been ungenerous to him. Although no modern edition of Greek demotic songs can begin without acknowledging his ground-breaking contributions, his editing has been characterized as lacking fidelity,3 and his motives “naturally, indebted to the ideas of German romanticism.”4 Herder's methodological outlook, and Goethe's seminal specimens of 1802 had a great deal to do with the spectacular success of Fauriel's two volumes. Versions of his work were made available in St. Petersburg, Leipzig, and London in 1825, the year of the original publication in Paris.6 On the other hand, neither Goethe's nor Fauriel's motives can be conceived apart from the strong philhellenic sentiment that had so much to do with the physical fate of that province of the Ottoman Empire called Greece. That movement did not differ, either in the kind of dreams that it evoked or in the numbers of romantic and romanticizing adherents that it set dreaming, from those movements that found the Corsicans and the Spanish “exotic” and the Americans “innocent.”

(P.) Sherrard. The Marble Threshing-Floor. Studies in Modern Greek Poetry. London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1956. Pp. vii + 258. 21s.

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Medieval and Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology. C. A. Trypanis

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsMedieval and Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology. C. A. Trypanis Costas M. ProussisCostas M. Proussis Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Classical Philology Volume 48, Number 1Jan., 1953 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/363603 PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Medieval and Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology

Medieval and Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology

Medieval and Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology. C. A. Trypanis

<i>Medieval and Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology</i>. C. A. Trypanis

Modern Greek Poetry

Modern Greek Poetry