Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

The 2008 Greek riots were dramatized as a discourse of phainesthai: the violence that describes them manifested itself in the proliferation of a number of interrelated constructs, such as apháneia, diapháneia, apokálypsis, kálypsis, koukoulofóroi, and gnostoí-ágnostoi. Much of the discussion here focuses on the function of the hood (koukoúla) and, more specifically, the implementation of a law in Greece to outlaw hoods during demonstrations. Such phenomenological exploration opens up a space where the relationship between (in)visibility and violence can be examined in the framework of what Slavoj Žižek calls "objective violence." Against the background of a wider theoretical discussion on the ethics of violence (Arendt, Benjamin, Foucault, Critchley, Žižek), the 2008 events are also considered in relation to the French riots of 2005 in an attempt to map out their revelatory force: i.e. the violence and the tensions they revealed.

One of the most persistent themes in Rey Chow's work is the concept of the ethnic and the ways in which it has been redefined in a poststructuralist context. This essay examines Chow's critique of poststructuralist theory, particularly as it pertains to the concepts of nationalism, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism. Contrary to the predominant definitions of nationalism and ethnicity, Chow's work challenges the largely unquestioned tendency in contemporary theory both to be humanistic, or cosmopolitan, and to deconstruct any 'fixed' meaning. Chow's theoretical position underlines the fact that such theoretical de-constructions, first and foremost, ignore the social and political problems that are irrevocably linked to the question of ethnicity. It also exposes the ways in which poststructuralist theory's critique of ethnicity inadvertently serves the Western logocentrism that it originally set out to deconstruct. Finally, this article focuses on the relevance of Chow's critique to the status of national departments in the University setting and the definition of Comparative Literature as a field.

In his 1958 essay Reconciliation under Duress, Theodor W. Adorno, then the Director of the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, launches a caustic critique on Georg Lukacs’ The Meaning of Contemporary Realism.1 Even though he acknowledges The Theory of the Novel as a work of “brilliance and profundity of conception,” he proceeds to attack Lukacs’ post-1920’s writings where “he acquiesced in the communist custom and disavowed his earlier writings.” Adorno marks the publication of Lukacs’ The Destruction of Reason as the point of destruction of its author’s own reason...

The collection of essays The Avant-garde and the Margin: New Territories of the Modernist Avant-garde refigures the critical and historical picture of the modernist avant-garde by introducing a variety of less-commonly discussed geo-artistic sites and dynamics. The contributors explore the multifaceted relations established between the avant-garde “centers” (France, Germany, England, and others) and their counterparts in the cultural “periphery” (Greece, India, Japan, Poland, Quebec, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia), as well as the unique artistic and literary dialogues which these encounters engendered. The primary concern of the anthology is the set of relations established between the center and the margin, the redefinition of which was pivotal for the formulation of the modernist avant-garde aesthetic project itself.

While enriching the kaleidoscopic picture of modernism, the essays in this collection also offer new methodological approaches to this polychrome cultural image. In this way, the collection avoids the pitfalls of both the traditional diffusionist/Eurocentric model of the world and the more recent over-relativization of the positions of the margin and the center. In their stead, the anthology proposes a hermeneutics of encounter that is simultaneously “spatial” and “historical,” aware of its limits but convinced of its own necessity.

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Reviews:
-- Per Bäckström, in NORDLIT Issue 21, Spring 2007, p.p. 287-292.
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Engaging with the work of Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseus Elytis within the framework of international modernism, Marinos Pourgouris places the poet's work in the context of other modernist and surrealist writers in Europe. At the same time, Pourgouris puts forward a redefinition of European Modernism that makes the Mediterranean, and Greece in particular, the discursive contact zone and incorporates neglected elements such as national identity and geography. Beginning with an examination of Greek Modernism, Pourgouris's study places Elytis in conversation with Albert Camus; analyzes the influence of Charles Baudelaire, Gaston Bachelard, and Sigmund Freud on Elytis's theory of analogies; traces the symbol of the sun in Elytis's poetry by way of the philosophies of Heraclitus and Plotinus; examines the influence of Le Corbusier on Elytis's theory of architectural poetics; and takes up the subject of Elytis's application of his theory of Solar Metaphysics to poetic form in the context of works by Freud, C. G. Jung, and Michel Foucault. Informed by extensive research in the United States and Europe, Pourgouris's study makes a compelling contribution to the comparative study of Greek modernism, the Mediterranean, and the work of Odysseus Elytis.

Mythistory and Narratives of the Nation in the Balkans
Editor: Tatjana Aleksić
Date Of Publication: Apr 2007
Isbn13: 9781847181510
Isbn: 1-84718-151-1
The idea of this collection is to bring to the forefront various ways in which the literary poetics of Balkan nations interrelates with their national poetics, and present recent and innovative explorations of literature and film which actively engage with national poetics, a kind of mythopoiesis of the modern Balkans.

In proposing an approach to the national question that lies distinctly in the liminal space best designated as mythistory, the collection brings together two dominant approaches to national discourse. The first tends to interpret the nation as a myth, an artificial creation, an invention, even a “dream.” The other is a mapping of the nation that considers its historically progressive role. It is their multifaceted dynamics that brings to the foreground a unique national mythopoetics.

Mythistory is explored through its multifold engagement with the text: as a major element in the universal nationalist discourse, as a narrative strategy extensively utilized in Balkan literary and film narratives, and as a particular technique in approaching the text. Through the insights gained from literary and critical theory, historical analysis, and cultural anthropology, this collection seeks to reveal the application of mythistorical discourse upon narratives responding to nation-forming historical events. The texts in this collection articulate very distinct agendas of gender, identity, culture, philosophy, and aesthetics, all interwoven with national problematic, but steer away from the definition by which mythistory is relegated to the transparently propagandist.


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Also see David Norris' review here:

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Το βιβλίο αποτελεί μια επιλογή δεκατεσσάρων επιστημονικών ανακοινώσεων που παρουσιάστηκαν στο Διεθνές Επιστημονικό Συνέδριο «Νίκος Καζαντζάκης 2007: Πενήντα χρόνια μετά» (Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης, Ηράκλειο & Ρέθυμνο, 18-21 Μαΐου 2007). Στόχος του Συνεδρίου ήταν να διαγραφεί η τοποθέτηση της σύγχρονης επιστημονικής κοινότητας απέναντι στο έργο του Καζαντζάκη, ενός συγγραφέα που εξακολουθεί, όπως φαίνεται και από τα συμπεριλαμβανόμενα μελετήματα, να αποτελεί «σημείον αντιλεγόμενον». Είναι χαρακτηριστικό ότι για το magnum opus του Καζαντζάκη, την Οδύσεια, υπάρχουν περιορισμένης μάλλον έκτασης συζητήσεις σε δύο μόνο εργασίες. Το ίδιο συμβαίνει και με την Ασκητική. Από τις δεκατέσσερεις εργασίες οχτώ αναφέρονται στα μυθιστορήματα (Φιλιππίδης, Καψωμένος, Παπανικολάου, Πασχάλης, Τζιόβας, Παπαρούση, Παπαχριστόπουλος, Καστρινάκη). Τα μυθιστορήματα του Καζαντζάκη υπήρξαν τα πλέον προσφιλή στο αναγνωστικό κοινό κείμενά του, αλλά, όπως για μια ακόμα φορά αποδεικνύει και αυτό το Συνέδριο, το προσφιλές επίσης αντικείμενο των κριτικών. Μια σειρά από μελετήματα αναφέρονται στα άλλα λογοτεχνικά είδη της καζαντζακικής παραγωγής (Πουργούρης Κεχαγιόγλου, Γλυτζουρής, Μήνη). Μια τελευταία κατηγορία εργασιών είναι εκείνη η οποία περιλαμβάνει μελετήματα που στρέφονται στο πώς οι άλλοι είδαν τον Καζαντζάκη ως άνθρωπο και ως συγγραφέα (Φαρίνου, Δημηρούλης).

Περιεχόμενα
Αγγέλα Καστρινάκη, Ο Καζαντζάκης Γνωστικός

Δημήτρης Δημηρούλης, Ο Νίκος Καζαντζάκης και η Γενιά του ’30. Τα ίχνη της απουσίας

Γιώργος Κεχαγιόγλου, Μερικές παρατηρήσεις και σκέψεις με αφορμή τη μεσοασιατική και απωανατολική γραμματειακή διάσταση στον Ν. Καζαντζάκη

Δημήτρης Τζιόβας, Ο πειρασμός του αρχάγγελου και το νόημα της θυσίας: Η ερμηνευτική του προσωπείου στο Ο Χριστός ξανασταυρώνεται

Μαρίτα Παπαρούση, Όψεις του σώματος στο μυθιστόρημα Ο Χριστός ξανασταυρώνεται

Μιχαήλ Πασχάλης, Η τοπογραφία του Ζορμπά: Ιδεολογική λειτουργία και διακείμενα

Αντώνης Γλυτζουρής, Τα μερεμέτια του Πρωτομάστορα

Παναγιώτα Μήνη, Πλάθοντας για τον κινηματογράφο έναν επαναστάτη Προφήτη: Το σενάριο Μουχαμέτης (1932) του Ν. Καζαντζάκη

Γ. Φαρίνου–Μαλαματάρη, Τέσσερεις γυναίκες βιογραφούν τον Καζαντζάκη

Νίκος Παπαχριστόπουλος, Ο Νόμος της Μητέρας: Ν. Καζαντζάκη Ο Τελευταίος πειρασμός

Μαρίνος Πουργούρης, Τοτέμ και Ταμπού: Ο Καζαντζάκης αναγνώστης του Freud

Ερατοσθένης Γ. Καψωμένος, Σημασιακοί κώδικες και αξιακά πρότυπα της Κρήτης στο έργο του Νίκου Καζαντζάκη

Δημήτρης Παπανικολάου, «Αφεντικό, άνθρωπο δεν αγάπησα σαν εσένα»: Ο Αλέξης Ζορμπάς και η ποιητική της ομοκοινωνικότητας

Σ. Ν. Φιλιππίδης, Οι απόγονοι του Ντοστογιέβσκι και ο Καζαντζάκης

Engaging with the work of Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseus Elytis within the framework of international modernism, Marinos Pourgouris places the poet's work in the context of other modernist and surrealist writers in Europe. At the same time, Pourgouris puts forward a redefinition of European Modernism that makes the Mediterranean, and Greece in particular, the discursive contact zone and incorporates neglected elements such as national identity and geography. Beginning with an examination of Greek Modernism, Pourgouris's study places Elytis in conversation with Albert Camus; analyzes the influence of Charles Baudelaire, Gaston Bachelard, and Sigmund Freud on Elytis's theory of analogies; traces the symbol of the sun in Elytis's poetry by way of the philosophies of Heraclitus and Plotinus; examines the influence of Le Corbusier on Elytis's theory of architectural poetics; and takes up the subject of Elytis's application of his theory of Solar Metaphysics to poetic form in the context of works by Freud, C. G. Jung, and Michel Foucault. Informed by extensive research in the United States and Europe, Pourgouris's study makes a compelling contribution to the comparative study of Greek modernism, the Mediterranean, and the work of Odysseus Elytis.

Contents: Introduction: Odysseus Elytis and the specter of nationalism; Modernism: from Paris to Athens; Towards a new Mediterranean culture; The theory of analogies; Solar metaphysics; Architectural poetics; Appendix: Odysseus Elytis: life and works; Works cited; Index.

About the Author: Marinos Pourgouris is Assistant Professor in the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

Reviews: 'Mediterranean Modernisms is the first comparative study of Odysseus Elytis, the important Greek poet and Nobel Laureate. Marinos Pourgouris analyzes individual poems and draws connections between Elytis’s work and wider literary movements. Along the way, he challenges our understanding of national modernism and world literature while also charting his own theory of Mediterranean poetics. Undaunted in his pursuit of a Greek and a European Elytis, Pourgouris provides a kaleidoscopic look at the place of poetry in the Mediterranean imaginary.'
Gregory Jusdanis, Distinguished Humanities Professor and Director of the Modern Greek Studies Program at The Ohio State University, USA

The collection of essays 'The Avant-garde and the Margin: New Territories of the Modernist Avant-garde' refigures the critical and historical picture of the modernist avant-garde by introducing a variety of less-commonly discussed geo-artistic sites and dynamics. The contributors explore the multifaceted relations established between the avant-garde 'centers' (France, Germany, England, and others) and their counterparts in the cultural 'periphery' (Greece, India, Japan, Poland, Quebec, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia), as well as the unique artistic and literary dialogues which these encounters engendered. The primary concern of the anthology is the set of relations established between the center and the margin, the redefinition of which was pivotal for the formulation of the modernist avant-garde aesthetic project itself. While enriching the kaleidoscopic picture of modernism, the essays in this collection also offer new methodological approaches to this polychrome cultural image. In this way, the collection avoids the pitfalls of both the traditional diffusionist/Eurocentric model of the world and the more recent over-relativization of the positions of the margin and the center. In their stead, the anthology proposes a hermeneutics of encounter that is simultaneously 'spatial' and 'historical,' aware of its limits but convinced of its own necessity.

Review
"The anthology The Avant-garde and the Margin: New Territories of Modernism has been long awaited. This exemplary series of essays proposes novel ways of looking at the dynamic of the center and the margin while performatively and theoretically targeting the most pressing issue in modernist studies - namely, the geographical and temporal expansion of its scope of inquiry." "The collection provides a fresh look at the geocultural spaces of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Americas in the extended epoch of modernism and offers multiple surprising insights into the hidden dynamics of modernist intercultural relating, in particular, those pertaining to the studies of Slavic literatures in comparative context. Finally, this multifaceted inquiry into the neglected "territories of modernism" goes beyond a simple disclosure of the previously unattended aesthetic achievements of "marginal" modernisms: it moves the boundaries of the present theoretical conceptualizations of the dynamic of centers and margins, opening a set of new questions and theoretical frameworks. I recommend this anthology strongly not only to modernist scholars, but also to any serious student of aesthetic interculturality." Novica Milic, Professor of Comparative Literature and Theory, University of Belgrade "The collection of essays The Avant-garde and the Margin: New Territories of Modernism offers an insightful discussion of the dialogue, in modernism, between the so-called "centers" of aesthetic production and their counterparts in the cultural "periphery," questioning the very existence of centers and margins and proposing a theory that argues for fruitful bi-directional (rather than only uni-directional) intercultural encounters in specific historical contexts. While much has been written on modernism in Western Europe and England, this volume breaks new ground in its concentration on modernism practiced in locations ranging from Romania, Poland, and the former Yugoslavia to Greece, French Canada, Japan, and India. Shedding light on the genres of poetry and drama; movements such as Surrealism, DADA, and other avant-gardes; and issues such as gender, modernity, and nationalism, it demonstrates that the concepts of center and margin are useful in the study of intercultural interactions and that the study of modernism practiced from the periphery reveals important truths about the routes of cultural transfer. The volume contributes to the ongoing discussion of cultural trafficking across boundaries and borders in the twentieth century." Janet A. Walker, Professor of Comparative Literature, Rutgers University "Avoiding the predictable poles of center and margin, metropolitan and colonized, the west and the east, The Avant Garde and the Margin looks at the modernist traditions in forgotten and often uncelebrated places: Quebec, Greece, Poland, Romania, India, the former Yugoslavia. Wide-ranging in subject matter and comprehensive in theoretical approach, this collection of essays broadens our understanding of cultural interaction. In so doing, it challenges our conception of world literature by forcing us to think about modes of literary and cultural exchange that both traditional and poststructuralist discourses have neglected." Gregory Jusdanis, Humanities Distinguished Professor, The Ohio State University"

Σύντομη αναφορά για την εικόνα της Κύπρου στην Αγγλική λογοτεχνία.  Στο "Διά ανθύμησιν καιρού καί τόπου: Λογοτεχνικές Aποτυπώσεις του Kόσμου της Kύπρου." Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Επιστημονικού Συνεδρίου
Λευκωσία, 6-9 Οκτωβρίου 2012. Φιλολογική Επιμέλεια: Μιχάλης Πιερής (σσ. 671-682)