090104 UE The Cultural Politics of Modern Greek Literature: 19th and 20th century (2020S)

This course raises into a dominant hermeneutic approach the assumption that always underlies our study of literary works: the connections of literature to broader cultural discourses and its complex and form mediated relation to historical and political contexts. We are focusing on the special case of Greece, where, since the institution of the Greek nation state, literary production is largely embedded in the unfolding formation of and preoccupation with Greek identity. In this perspective we will explore a series of questions (representation of nature and space, evolving notions of Hellenicity, East and West, the relation of past and present, classical reception, issues of heritage, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, colonizing and self-colonizing discourses, canon formation, travel writing) across texts that range from the Enlightenment (Rigas Velestinles, Adamantios Korais) to Romanticism (the Heptanese school and Dionysios Solomos), and to Alexandrian poetry at the turn of the century (C.P. Cavafy) to the generation of the thirties (George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis, George Theotokas, Nikos Kazatzakis). Our effort throughout will be to critically approach existing scholarship on the topic and try new theoretical approaches, in hope of fresh readings of Modern Greek texts.