Τα 'Εθνη: Το συγγραφικο χρονικο των ‘Ασθενων και Οδοιπορων’ του Γιωργου Θεοτοκα (1941-1964)

Please note: this article is in Greek. This material presents the different stages followed by the well-known Greek author George Theotokas to construct one of his most important works, Invalids and Warfares

Πεντζίκης: Αγκαζέ

Please note: This article is in Greek. In this paper which is a chapter of a forthcoming book publication on the literary work of N. G. Pentzikis, I examine the notion of “engagement”. I begin with a text published in the journal Paramilito in which we are informed that in 1941 the close circle of Pentzikis’ friends were very upset because when walking through the city of Thessaloniki the author wanted to walk linked together arm to arm. They expressed their objection but Pentzikis insisted this attitude has nothing to do with an accepted or unaccepted social practice but was a profound engagement to become united (omoousios) with the other persons. The author’s attitude of course is identical towards not only the physical presence of others, but also to the function of language, narrative structures, aesthetical approach, social ideologies, myths and religion. To put it in other words, Pentzikis abandons himself in the “hands” of things, events and situations that occur. On the creative level someone can test this engagement in every single page of his writings but in this paper I examine the above through some concrete themes e.g. “icon”, “surface”, “scheme” “hero” and so on. Another important question that arises here is the issue of continuity/discontinuity in the narrative construction of writing text. Pentzikis always tries to address this issue by engaging himself in an unstoppable multitude of narrations, from where the most foreign and distant elements are fusing together. At the end of the paper I refer to a discursive engagement between Pentzikis and George Seferis from where someone can understand that their fundamental differences produce two completely opposite aesthetic directions. We now know that for a variety of reasons over the last fifty years George Seferis’ vision of dis-engagement has dominated the Greek intellectual life

Η Ελληνομάθεια στο Ρίβερλαντ

Please note: this article is in Greek. The Teaching of Greek in the Riverland: This paper focuses on the introduction and establishment of the Greek teaching programs in the Riverland area. It is part of an ongoing study on the settlement of Greek migrants in the upper Murray area, during the 1960’s in particular. In a previous paper published in 2009 I examined the establishment of the Greek communities in the Riverland and focussed on the creation of cultural institutions and on the social interaction amongst the Greek migrants. In this paper I decided to expand on the teaching of the Greek language which became the major cultural focus that shaped not only the Greek communities in the Riverland, but also promotes interaction with the other local communities and will shape future generations. The findings of this paper is that the year 1966 was the catalyst; because for the first time Greek community schools were established and this development created a new dynamism in the local Greek communities. The first architects of these schools were priests that arrived in the area, built churches and decided to promote the teaching of the Greek language. Through the study it is has become obvious that these first schools, besides promoting and maintaining language, also very actively promoted national and religious celebrations. It was also a time when new colours, new attitudes and new languages were given a dynamic publicity, pre-figuring multiculturalism which eventually became the official policy of Australia in the mid-1970’s. I decided to give the paper a tone of a lively narrative, revealing ‘wild’ human lives in the process of building cultures and institutions, rather than anxiously follow scientific exactitude and statistics

Καβάφης: “Ας αφεθώ σ’ αυτήν”

Please Note: This article is in Greek. Kavafis: Let me submit to Art: Beginning with the poem “Κίμων Λεάρχου, 22 ετών, σπουδαστής ελληνικών γραμμάτων”, this study reveals that behind his “synthetic” poetry lays a secret desire for Kavafis to compose a “novelistic” prose. It is an ambitious but almost undeclared project, which could embrace not only diachronic characters but also philosophical and cosmopolitan ideas from the Hellenistic era (like epicurean hedonism) to the 20th century, in an “epigrammatic” approach. Other important issues arise, such as: the antithesis between philosophically mature subject on one hand and “educated”/uneducated characters dealing with every day unsolved passionate matters, on the other. Kavafis seems to develop a particularly strong interest in the second ones. Analysing Kavafi’s poem, when he is dealing with both, we can decode not only his literary passions but also his theory about a poem as a “synthetic” combination of tales, ideas and lust narratives: the dream trip for a postmodern sophist

Alexia: Antigone Kefala's overdue fairytale

The aim of this paper is to examine the way in which Antigone Kefala constructs her story to become an author. She narrates her experience in her book Alexia (Antigone Kefala"s persona) in a fairytale manner. In the book we learn that Alexia spent some of the most important years of her young life in New Zealand, as a migrant. The most important part of this experience is based on her difficulty to come to terms with, and learn, a new language (English). What begins by being a traumatic experience for Alexia, later evolves into a creative force that guides her decision to become an author. In that way the English language becomes the most powerful, the most creative and the most productive tool in her life. In order to challenge Alexia's process of becoming an author, her experience is compared to that of two famous French authors, Aragon and Sartre, who also decided to become authors in their childhood years. There was an obvious parallel between the French authors’ experiences through their first language, which corresponded in an astonishing way to Alexia's. Therefore, no matter whether one wishes to express oneself in one’s mother tongue or a foreign language, the process of becoming an author is always to consider a language as an unknown field of strange sounds, musicality and scattered grains of meanings

Kavafis: the days of "K"

Please note: This article is in Greek. Kavafis: The Days of “K”: Four “Ks”: Kalvos, Kavafis, Karyotakis, Kafka. This paper focuses on a new approach regarding Kavafis’ poetry: reading it from the perspective of the fictional “character”. Reading Kavafis’ poetry we can easily realise that almost all individuals in his poems are not represented as traditional heroes but rather as contemporary characters, regardless of whether they are living in Alexandria, at the beginning of the 20th century or two thousand years ago, in any place around the Mediterranean. This choice makes them fresh, real, almost tangible and corresponds to the aesthetic expectations of the 20th and 21st century readers. Following this critical line, it became obvious to us that the main path to better understand Kavafis is the concept of the “subject”: how it was represented and transformed in the context of the western literature in general and in the area of Modern Greek literature in particular, during the last two centuries or so; when, where and how the traditionally multi-potential subject was challenged and why. The Parisian poet Charles Baudelaire was an important key point to start with on one hand and Franz Kafka, from Prague, almost an ending point: in a space of less than a half of a century the fictional subject was totally dismantled. Kavafis is situated in the middle of this extraordinary transition, pointing in both directions in a less dramatic way but full of dramatisation, while Modern Greek poetry was experiencing its own transformations. From Andreas Kalvos to Kostas Karyotakis, Modern Greek poetry emerges as a beginning and an end. Both such radically different poets, yet paradoxically, not so far away from each other, just like two different “days” under Kavafian terms and conditions.This paper was originally presented at the Ninth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University, June 2011

Σολωμός: Γιατί τα ρούχα του Ομήρου ήταν “σχισμένα”

Please note: this article is in Greek

Το ελληνικό στοιχείο του Ρίβερλαντ

Please note: this article is in Greek. The Greek settlement in the Riverland: This paper will focus on the presence of the Greek element in the Riverland area. Firstly I examine the historical development of the Greek communities living in the main areas of Riverland: Paringa, Renmark, Berri, Barmera, Loxton and Waikerie by using census data from 1911–2006. Then I summarize the Greek involvement and their contribution to the agricultural sector in the development of the Riverland. Also describing and historically assessing the creation of the most significant cultural institutions like schools and churches as well as festivals and other cultural activities will be another focus. In some cases distinctive individuals will be highlighted. This research is based on official data, some limited previous academic research, the local press, interviews, as well as archival material from Greek institutions. In addition, over the last few years I conducted many interviews with local people and extracts from their stories will be presented

Éloge des larmes: with mind and tears.

Please note: this article is in Greek. When and why do people cry? This is a very interesting cultural question, in particular if we are examining this topic throughout the development of different cultures. In this paper I will only try to focus on selective periods that will allow us to understand the cultural diversity of crying. At first, I will refer briefly to the ancient Greek culture when, for example, Plato, in his “perfect” Republic does not allow people to weep publicly. Later when a more “popular” Christianity arises, tears are more frequent than in the first period of Christianity. An important part of this paper will then focus on the Romanticism and especially the Modern Greek Romanticism with specific references to Kalvos and Solomos. It seems that in Solomos’ poetry tears are becoming less frequent in his late or “mature” period. Then I will examine Kariotakis’, Cavafis’ and Egonopoulos’ works. Finally, I will focus on Pentzikis’ “compositions” using references from various texts: in particular I will focus on Pentzikis’s text “With reason and tears” from his book “Water Overflowing”. This will allow us to interconnect Solomos’ mind and Pentzikis’ “inter-lect” and I will conclude that in Pentzikis’ “dictional” creation nothing separates tears and reason — and that spiritual or material bodies arise together in an un-cultural landscape full of waters and dry stones

Modern Greek in Australia: a study of the current situation and future perspectives

This study, completed in September 2011, examines the situation of Modern Greek in Australia. After a lengthy research the authors were able to find out the exact number of all Modern Greek students in Australia. The authors, in order to make the study more relevant and place it in the wider Australian context, decided to incorporate information regarding the historical settlement of Greeks in Australia as well as the sociocultural dynamics which are influencing the maintenance and teaching of the Greek language. The findings and the analysis clearly indicate that Modern Greek in Australia will face a lot of challenges in the near future and that it is urgent for all parties concerned to come up with practical strategies if this important language for Australia is to stay alive and well in the antipodes