Historical Poetics : Chronotopes in "Leucippe and Clitophon" and "Tom Jones"

This paper forms part of a larger, ongoing project, to investigate how certain narrative possibilities that seem to have crystallized for the first time in the ancient Greek novel have proved persistent and productive over time, undergoing subtle transformations during formative later periods in the history of the genre, notably the twelfth century (simultaneously in Old French and in Byzantine Greek) and the eighteenth (the time when, according to a narrower definition, the novel is said to originate). For the present, my more limited aim is to revisit the two main essays in which Bakhtin’s theory of the chronotope (and of the “historical poetics” of the novel) are developed, and to extrapolate what seem to me to the most significant and productive lines of his approach, both in general, and with specific reference to the ancient Greek novel. I will then attempt simultaneously to apply and to modify Bakhtin’s model, in the light of a reading of Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon and with reference to previous critiques. The final part of the paper examines how this approach can be productive for a reading of a much later text, often regarded as “foundational” for the modern development of the genre, especially in English, Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749)

The Oral Traditions of Modern Greece: A Survey

Roderick Beaton (King's College London) has carried on fieldwork on Greek oral poetry in many parts of Greece and Cyprus and is the author of Folk Poetry of Modern Greece (1980). He has researched and published extensively on Greek literature dating from the twelfth century to the present and on modern Greek folk music. His current research project is a book entitled The Medieval Greek Romance

Modern Greek Studies since 1975: A personal retrospect

In 1975 interest in contemporary Greece in the UK was at its height. The launch of Byzantine and Modern Studies coincided almost exactly with the ‘Greek Month in London’, when venues all over the city simultaneously hosted a series of cultural and academic events that brought together artists, writers, historians, diplomats, Greeks and philhellenes from many walks of life in a month-long celebration. It was advertised on buses and in the Underground. You couldn't miss it. It was so successful that the organizers followed it up a year later with an ‘Islamic Month in London’. That’s how big the contemporary Greek world and its culture were, back then

The Ridge and the River: Adapting a novel set in World War Two into a screenplay for a contemporary Australian film audience

This two-part thesis argues that academic studies of adaptation from novel to film disregard the importance to the screenwriter of industrial and commercial pressures. The first part has a brief overview of adaptation studies, and the art of screenwriting which links to a final chapter about adapting a specific novel into a screenplay, some concerns of screenplay structure and a personal review of tasks ahead. The second part is the creative work of a feature length screenplay

That Greece Might Still Be Free

When in 1821, the Greeks rose in violent revolution against the rule of the Ottoman Turks, waves of sympathy spread across Western Europe and the United States. More than a thousand volunteers set out to fight for the cause. The Philhellenes, whether they set out to recreate the Athens of Pericles, start a new crusade, or make money out of a war, all felt that Greece had unique claim on the sympathy of the world. As Lord Byron wrote, "I dreamed that Greece might still be Free"; and he died at Missolonghi trying to translate that dream into reality. William St Clair's meticulously researched and highly readable account of their aspirations and experiences was hailed as definitive when it was first published. Long out of print, it remains the standard account of the Philhellenic movement and essential reading for any students of the Greek War of Independence, Byron, and European Romanticism. Its relevance to more modern ethnic and religious conflicts is becoming increasingly appreciated by scholars worldwide. This revised edition includes a new introduction by Roderick Beaton, an updated bibliography and many new illustrations

MINOANS IN MODERN GREEK LITERATURE

This chapter focuses on literary appropriations of the Minoan past, chosen from the work of major Greek authors active between the early 20th and the early 21st century. Kazantzakis in his Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938) depicts Minoan society as terminally depraved and (following Evans) as utterly un-Hellenic; later, in Report to Greco (1955-7), the same author tooks a mellower view, acknowledging the Minoans among his own spiritual ancestors. A similar process of gradual assimilation of the Minoans into a Hellenic continuum continues through texts of the mid-century by Ritsos, Elytis, and Diktaios, and is taken further by the postmodernist writers Dimitris Kalokyris and RheaGalanaki in work published during the last twenty years. It is concluded that these literary constructions of the Minoan past contribute to consolidation and redefinition of a national Greek identity, rather than a specifically Cretan regional one