Introduction to Modern Greek Literature

This comprehensive introduction to Modern Greek Literature aims to start with the problem of definition of the two main terms it comprises: “literature”(what is literature, on which basis can we define it, how it is connected and yet differentiated to other related terms) and “Modern Greek” (in order to use this term the main criterion for a text, oral or written, is its language, as well as a certain sense conveyed by it that we could call consciously Greek). Then we proceed to its disciplines: grammatology, philology and comparative literature. After offering an overview of the main Histories of Modern Greek Literature (K. Dimaras, L. Politis, M. Vitti, R. Beaton) and to their chronological and bibliographical limits we move to the core of this course, that is an outline of the history of Modern Greek Literature. We thus cover its emergence and evolution from its early beginnings till the modern era: the centuries that preceded The Ottoman Occupation, the golden period of the Renaissance in Crete, the various types of demotic songs or Modern Greek folk poetry, the 18th Century with its focus on matters of language and education rather than on mere literary issues, the School of Eptanisa and the central figures of D. Solomos and A. Kalvos, the Athenian version of Romanticism, Modern Greek prose writing (historic novel, short stories, ithografia, realism, naturalism), K. Palamas and the second generation of Athenian romanticism, C. P. Cavafy, the generations of 20s and 30s, the Post-War generation