Modern Greek literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Modern Greek literature is literature written in Modern Greek, starting in the late Byzantine era in the 11th century AD.[1] It includes work not only from within the borders of the modern Greek state, but also from other areas where Greek was widely spoken, including Istanbul, Asia Minor, and Alexandria.[2]
The first period of modern Greek literature includes texts concerned with philosophy and the allegory of daily life, as well as epic songs celebrating the akritai (Acritic songs), the most famous of which is Digenes Akritas. In the late 16th and early 17th century, Crete flourished under Venetian rule and produced two of the most important Greek texts; Erofili (ca. 1595) by Georgios Chortatzis and Erotokritos (ca. 1600) by Vitsentzos Kornaros. European Enlightenment had a profound effect on Greek scholars, most notably Rigas Feraios and Adamantios Korais, who paved the way for the Greek War of Independence in 1821.
After the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece, intellectual output was centered in the Ionian Islands, and in Athens. The Heptanese School was represented by poets such as Dionysios Solomos, who wrote the national anthem of Greece and Aristotelis Valaoritis, while the Athenian School included figures like Alexandros Rizos Rangavis and Panagiotis Soutsos. In the 19th, the Greek language question arose, as there was an intense dispute between the users of Demotic Greek, i.e. the language of everyday life, and those who favoured Katharevousa, a cultivated imitation of Ancient Greek. Kostis Palamas, Georgios Drossinis, and Kostas Krystallis, who belonged to the so-called 1880s Generation, revitalized Greek letters and helped cement Demotic Greek as the form most used in poetry. Prose also thrived, with writers like Emmanuel Rhoides, Georgios Vizyinos, Alexandros Papadiamantis, and Andreas Karkavitsas.
The most celebrated poets of the verge of the 20th century are Constantine P. Cavafy, Angelos Sikelianos, Kostas Varnalis, and Kostas Karyotakis. As of prose, Nikos Kazantzakis, is the best-known Greek novelist outside Greece.[1] Other important writers of that period are Grigorios Xenopoulos, and Konstantinos Theotokis, while Penelope Delta is noted for her children's stories and novels. The Generation of the '30s first introduced modernist trends in Greek literature. It included writers Stratis Myrivilis, Elias Venezis, Yiorgos Theotokas, and M. Karagatsis, and poets Giorgos Seferis, Andreas Embirikos, Yiannis Ritsos, Nikos Engonopoulos, and Odysseas Elytis. Seferis and Elytis were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1963 and 1979 respectively.
In post-war decades many significant poets were published, such as Tasos Leivaditis, Manolis Anagnostakis, Titos Patrikios, Kiki Dimoula and Dinos Christianopoulos. Dido Sotiriou, Stratis Tsirkas, Alki Zei, Menis Koumandareas, Costas Taktsis, and Thanassis Valtinos are routinely mentioned as some of the most important post-war prose writers, while Iakovos Kambanellis has been described as the "father of post–World War II Greek theater".[3] The 1980s saw the novel take over from poetry as the most prestigious genre in Greek literature, thanks to writers such as Eugenia Fakinou and Rhea Galanaki. Among more recent figures who have achieved critical acclaim and/or commercial success are Dimitris Lyacos, Petros Markaris, Chrysa Dimoulidou, Isidoros Zourgos, Christos Chomenidis, and Giannis Palavos.
There has been much discussion concerning the division of modern Greek literature into distinct eras. It has been suggested that it begins in 1453, the year of the Fall of Constantinople, but most scholars now agree that its onset can be traced in the 11th century, with the epic song of Digenes Akritas.[4][5] The contemporary high-school syllabus places its beginnings ever earlier, in the 10th century, and divides the history of modern Greek literature as follows:
- First period: from the 10th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453
- Second period: the years until the Ottoman Conquest of Crete in 1669
- Third period: the years leading to the independence of Greece in 1830
- Fourth period: the period of the modern Greek state (1830–present)
Another widely accepted periodization is the following:[2]
- 9th century - 1453
- 1453 - 1669
- 1669 - 1821 (start of the Greek War of Independence)
- 1821 - 1880 (emergence of the New Athenian School)
- 1880 - 1930 (emergence of the 1930s Generation)
- 1930–present
The epic of Digenes Akritas, the most famous of all Acritic songs, is often referred as the starting point of modern Greek literature.[6][1] This notion is justified by the fact that it is written in a form of Greek that is more familiar to modern-day speakers.[1] In fact, Digenes Akritas and other such epics, like the Song of Armouris, are the first attempts at a literary use of the spoken, common, i.e. modern Greek language.[4] They are narrations of the heroic deeds of the akritai, the guards along the Eastern edge of the Byzantine Empire, and they use the political verse, which was probably a major medium of expression for the illiterate and half-literate members of the Byzantine society.[7] These songs come from all parts of the then Greek-speaking world, and is argued that the oldest ones are from Cyprus, Asia Minor and Pontus.[8]
During the 12th century, Byzantine writers reintroduced the ancient Greek romance literature and many such novels were composed in the following centuries. Perhaps the most popular was Livistros and Rodamni, written by a demotic writer in Cyprus or Crete.[9] Others are Hysimine and Hysimines by Eustathios Makrembolites, Rodanthe and Dosikles by Theodore Prodromos, and Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe and Belthandros and Chrysantza, both by unknown authors. Theodore Prodromos is sometimes identified as the author of the so-called Ptochoprodromic Poems, a collection of four satiric poems, written in the vernacular.[10] Michael Glykas, who was imprisoned due to his participation in a conspiracy against Manuel I Komnenos, composed a petition in political verse, titled Poetic Lines by M. Glykas Which He Wrote during the Time He Was Detained because of Some Spiteful Informer, using vernacular and classical vocabulary.[11]
Another group of early modern Greek texts is that of allegorical and didactic poems. Story of Ptocholeon is one of the earliest such poems, and has oriental origins, probably Indian.[12] Spaneas, a poem containing moral advice for a young man, was frequently copied.[13] Amuzing tales about animals must have also been popular. Examples include the poems Tale about Quadrupeds, dated to 1364,[14] about a meeting of all the animals at the invitation of their king, the lion, the Poulologos, a similar tale about birds, and The Synaxarion of the Estimable Donkey, a 14th century fable of a donkey travelling to the Holy Land with a wolf and a fox.[10] There is also the Porikologos about fruits, written in prose as a parody of the official language of the Byzantine court.[15] In the early 14th century, the vernacular became the accepted medium for fiction of any kind.[16]
There are very few signs of intellectual activity during the first two centuries of Ottoman rule, as the Byzantine scholars fled to Italy.[17] Their migration during the decline of the Byzantine Empire and mainly after its dissolution greatly contributed to the transmission and dissemination of Ancient Greek letters in western Europe, and thus in the development of the Renaissance humanism.[18] Such émigrés included Gemistos Plethon, Manuel Chrysoloras, Theodorus Gaza, Cardinal Bessarion, John Argyropoulos, and Demetrios Chalkokondyles. Therefore, from the middle 15th century to the 17th century, the most notable literary texts come from areas under Francocracy, such as Rhodes, the Ionian Islands, and Crete, as well as from Greeks who were active in Italy.[19] Western literature was highly influential, both in content and in form. It is believed by many scholars that the use of rhyme in Greek poetry, despite being sporadically present in works of previous centuries, was a result of that influence.[20][21]
Cretan Renaissance
Crete was a Stato da Màr from 1205 until 1669. Venetian rule proved troubled from the beginning, but after the mid-16th century the change of policy towards natives and the improvement in welfare of both communities, led to a long period of peaceful coexistence and cultural crossfertilization.[22] Some scholars even talk about a shared Veneto-Cretan cultural consciousness.[23] Italian influence is apparent in these works, but there is a distinctive "Greekness" nonetheless.[24] As David Holton has put it: "Crete is the place par excellence where the meeting of the West with the Greek East took place."[25] The first important works of Cretan literature appear in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Stephanos Sahlikis, the first known Greek poet to use the couplet form consistently,[26] wrote humorous poems with autobiographical elements, such as Praise of Pothotsoutsounia, Council of the Whores and The Remarkable Story of the Humble Sachlikis. Janus Plousiadenos' Lamentation of the Mother of God on the Passion of Christ, a religious poem, was arguably quite popular.[27] Nevertheless, perhaps the most important of these early texts, is Apokopos by Bergadis. It was probably written around 1400, and is the earliest known vernacular text to have passed into printed form, in 1509.[28] Composed in rhyming couplets in political verses, it is a tale of a trip to Hades which pokes fun at religion and popular beliefs of that time.[29] Other known poets are Marinos Falieros, and Leonardos Dellaportas.
The heyday of Cretan Renaissance literature is placed between 1590 and the Ottoman conquest of Crete in 1669.[30] The principal characteristic of this period is that almost all the works are dramas.[31] The two most prominent figures are Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros.
Georgios Chortatzis' Erofili (ca. 1595) is deemed as the finest play of Cretan theatre.[32] Written in the local idiom, it is a violent tragedy narrating the condemned love between Erofili, daughter of the Egyptian king Philogonos, and the youth Panaretos. Before Erofili, Chortatzis also wrote Katzourbos, a comedy, and Panoria, an influential pastoral drama. Vitsentzos Kornaros is best-known for Erotokritos (ca. 1600), which is regarded as the undoubted masterpiece of this period, and one of the greatest achievements of modern Greek literature.[33][34] It is a poem of over 10,000 rhyming 15-syllable iambic verses in the Cretan dialect, narrating the chivalrous love of Erotokritos for the princess Aretousa and their union after long and arduous adventures of deception and intrigue.[35] Kornaros is also believed by some to be the author of The Sacrifice of Abraham (1635[36]), a religious drama inspired by the famous episode of the Old Testament, considered a landmark of Cretan theatre.[37]
Other surviving plays are the comedies Fortounatos (ca. 1662) by Markos Antonios Foskolos, and anonymous Stathis,[lower-alpha 1] and the dramatic King Rodolinos (1647) by Andreas Troilos. Voskopoula (ca. 1600), a short narrative poem of unknown author, is the only non-drama text of this period, apart from Erotokritos.[31]
Ionian islands, Aegean Archipelago, and Cyprus
In the 16th and 17th centuries Ionian islands, some lyric poetry existed alongside a didactic or hagiographical prose tradition, much of which was printed in Venice.[39] Corfiot Iakovos Trivolis wrote The Story of Tagapiera, a panegyric of a Venetian admiral, and The History of the King of Scotland and the Queen of England, a tale taken from Boccaccio's Decameron, or, more possibly, from one of its imitations.[40] Alexios Rartouros, also from Corfu, devised a prototype of popular preaching in his Sermons (1560).[39] In 1526, Nikolaos Loukanis, who lived in Venice, printed a paraphrase translation of Homer's Iliad, noted for being the most lavishly illustrated edition of any vernacular Greek work.[41] Teodoro Montseleze's religious drama Eugena (editio princeps in 1646) is the only extant play from that period.[42] Other known authors are Markos Defanaras from Zakynthos, and Ioannikios Kartanos from Corfu.
Even though lyric poetry was popular in Rhodes, a territorial entity of the Knights Hospitaller between 1310 and 1522, only a few texts have survived.[43] Erotopaignia, the most prominent of them, was written in the mid-15th century.[44] Emmanuel Georgillas or Limenitis, wrote The Plague of Rhodes, a narrative poem about the plague that hit the city of Rhodes in 1498.[45] To him is also attributed one of the surviving versions of The Tale of Belisarius, a poem relating the exploits and unjust punishment of general Belisarius.[46]
Cyprus was also an important intellectual center, evidenced mainly by the Cypriot Canzoniere, a 16th century athology of 156 poems.[47] They are translations and imitations of poems by Petrarch, Jacopo Sannazaro, Pietro Bembo, and others. Unlike other contemporary texts, they are written in the Italian hendecasyllable and in a variety of forms familiar to the Renaissance (sonnets, octaves, terzinas, sestinas, barzelettas, etc).[48] In fact, this collection contains the first true sonnets in Greek language,[49] and is widely considered one of the highest points of Renaissance literature in Greek language.[48][50] Cyprus also had a significant tradition of prose chronicles, which together with all literary output declined after the subjugation by the Ottomans.[51]
17th century Chios, saw significant theatrical activity, in the form of religious plays, which in the best cases show facets of the high Baroque, and Rococo.[52] Examples include Eleazar and the Seven Maccabee Boys by Michael Vestarchis, Three Boys in the Furnace by Grigorios Kontaratos and Drama of the Man Who Was Born Blind by Gabriel Prosopsas.
After 1669, many Cretans fled to the Ionian islands, thus transplanting the rich Cretan theatrical tradition there.[53] Tragedy Zenon, played in 1683, was written by an anonymous Cretan playwright.[54] Petros Katsaitis' tragedies Ifigenia (1720) and Thyestes (1721), and Savoyas Soumerlis' satirical Comedy of the Pseudo-Doctors (1745) are evidently modelled after Cretan plays,[55][56] alongside the influence from late Renaissance tragedy, commedia dell' arte, and Italian theatre in general.[54] Theatrical activity of the Aegean islands was continued in the first decades of the 18th century. Examples include the anonymus David, written in frankochiotika,[57] and Tragedy of St. Demetrius, performed in 1723 on Naxos.[58] The most important poem of the early 18th century is Flowers of Piety (1708), a miscellany edited by boarding students at the Flanginian College in Venice.[59] Ecclesiastical rhetoric makes up a significant part of the intellectual output of the time, with the likes of Ilias Miniatis, and Frangiskos Skoufos.
Enlightenment
Greek Enlightenment, also known as Diafotismos (Διαφωτισμός), was influenced primarily by the French and German variations, but it was also based on the rich heritage of Byzantine culture.[60] Its chronological limits can be loosely placed between 1750 and 1830, with the years 1774 to 1821 marking the zenith. In essence, the historical cycle of the Enlightenment for the Greeks ends with the outbreak of the War of Independence, some time after the end of the European Enlightenment.[61] Essentially, Diafotismos was a string of educational initiatives, such as translation of classics, compilation of dictionaries, and establishment of schools.[62] The literary production of this era points to clear intellectual trends: a turn towards the classics and the sciences, the formation of a new moral order, and, above all, emancipation from Church authority.[63] Phanar in Istanbul became an intellectual centre of high importance, due to the Phanariots, members of the Greek elite of the Ottoman Empire, who had acquired great wealth and influence during the 17th century.[64] Phanariots were also active in the Danubian Principalities, where many of them were appointed Hospodars, and the Russian Empire. So pivotal was their role, that the 18th century has been named "the century of the Phanariots."[65][66]
Paschalis Kitromilides identifies scholars Methodios Anthrakites, Antonios Katiphoros, Vikentios Damodos, and Nikolaos Mavrocordatos as the precursors of Diafotismos.[67] Mavrocordatos's novel Parerga of Philotheos (1718) did not have any effect on the development of Greek letters,[lower-alpha 2] but today it can be viewed as a forerunner of the new era of Greek literature.[68] Kaisarios Dapontes lived a turbulent life and, after becoming a monk, he wrote numerous poems, such as Mirror of Women, Garden of Graces, and Concise Canon of Many Amazing Things to be Found in Many Cities, Islands, Nations and Animals.[69] His works were very popular among all walks of life, and he is today regarded as the most important poet of his age.[70]
Clergyman Evgenios Voulgaris was the first great figure of Diafotismos. His oeuvre, consisting of translations of Voltaire, pamphlets, treatises, essays and poems, had a decisive impact on the course of the movement.[72] Iosipos Moisiodax, Christodoulos Pablekis, and Dimitrios Katartzis were also significant representatives of modern Greek Enlightenment, although they did not contribute to literature per se.
Adamantios Korais worked on political writings and translations of ancient and contemporary texts, but his central position in the history of Greek literature is due to his conception of Katharevousa, a purified form of the Greek language.[73] He also was instrumental in the founding of Hermes o Logios, the most important periodical prior to the War of Independence.[74] His prefaces to the first four books of Homer's Iliad (known as The Running Reverend) mark a launching pad for modern prose narrative.[75]
The ferment created by the French Revolution in Greek politics and social thought in the last decade of the eighteenth century found its most dramatic expression in the intellectual and political activities of Rigas Feraios.[76] Feraios translated foreign authors and wrote revolutionary texts and poems, of which Thourios is the most famous. Although his plans for an armed revolt against the Ottomans failed, he served as an inspiration for future generations and has been named the "National Bard".[77]
Cultivation of literature is detected mostly in the last quarter of the 18th century, and intensified in the years preceding the War of Independence. In 1785, Georgios N. Soutsos wrote The Unscrupulous Voevod Alexandros, a three-act comedy in prose, with which the genre of Phanariot satire begins.[78] The 1789 untitled libel by an unknown author (notnamed "Anonymus of 1789") is considered the first manifestation of creative prose in modern Greek.[79][80] Another important text of this genre is Anglofrancorussian (1805), a satire written in verse that became a kind of manifesto for the new ideology of the Enlightenment in its most extreme version.[80] Other examples include The Character of Valachia (ca. 1800), The Return, or The Lantern of Diogenes (1809), and The Comedy of the Apple of Discord (before 1820), all by unknown authors.[81]
Poetry was centered around two poles: Phanariots and those affected by the phanariot spirit; and the Heptanesians. Alexander Mavrocordatos Firaris, Dionisie Fotino, Michael Perdikaris, Georgios Sakellarios, and Athanasios Christopoulos belong to the first group, with Sakellarios and Christopoulos considered the most important. Phanariot poetry of the time covered many different themes, including romantic love, allegory and satire.[82] On the other hand, Ionians mostly wrote patriotic and satirical poems.[83] Antonios Martelaos, Thomas Danelakis, and Nikolaos Koutouzis are called pre-Solomians (i.e. those preceding Dionysios Solomos), and are the precursors of the flourishing of Heptanese poetry in the following years. Ioannis Vilaras, an important intellectual figure, is a distinct case, not only because his poems were published posthumously, during the War of Independence, but also because he cannot be categorized in any of the aforementioned literary groups.
In the Ionian islands treatrical performances were quite frequent, usually in the form of sketches, isolated scenes from the Cretan dramas,[84] and adaptations of foreign plays.[54] From the indigenous output, Dimitrios Gouzelis's comedy Chasis (1790 or 1795)[85] is by far the most notable.
War of Independence
The War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire broke out in early 1821 and had an immediate and profound effect on Greek literature. In mainland Greece, literature was sidelined but not nullified, as men of letters tried to inject enthusiasm into the population.[86] Folk poetry, essentially songs inspired by events of the times, also proliferated.[87] Literature proper was nourished mainly in the Ionian islands, now a British protectorate, but maintaining strong cultural ties with Italy.
Andreas Kalvos was born in Zakynthos, but lived most of his early years abroad, many of which accompanying Ugo Foscolo as his secretary. His work in Greek consists of two collections published while living in Switzerland and France, The Lyre (1824) and Lyric Poems (1826). These twenty odes are celebrations of the Greek revolution, and combine Neoclassicism with Romanticism.[88] Kalvos also wrote a few poems and three tragedies in Italian, and prose texts in English.[35] His poetry was met with indifference by his contemporaries, but was rediscovered and reassessed in the late 19th century.[89]
Dionysios Solomos hailed from Zakynthos, too, and studied in Italy, where he was introduced to the ideas of the Enlightenment, Classicism and emerging Romanticism. His first poems were written in Italian, but his appearance in Greek letters coincides with the commencement of the War.[lower-alpha 3] In 1823, Solomos composed Hymn to Liberty, a poem of 158 quatrains, the first two stanzas of which constitute the national anthem of Greece.[91] During that period he also wrote The Destruction of Psara, The Free Besieged, and The Woman of Zakynthos. Solomos is characterized by experimentalism in both language and form, having introduced into Greek a number of Western metrics (e.g. ottava rima, terza rima) that freed Greek poetry from the compulsion toward the decapentasyllabic verse.[35] His poems were written in the demotic language, showcasing that it can be used in poetry of high aesthetic quality.
Literary activity in Ionian islands was not limited to poetry. Ioannis Zambelios from Lefkada was a prolific writer, recognised for his attempts to revive Greek theatre.[92] He also wrote short stories, poems, and essays. Zakynthian noblewoman Elizabeth Moutzan-Martinegou is considered the first female writer of modern Greece.[93] She translated works of ancient literature and wrote poems and plays, most of which are now lost. Today, she is best remembered for her autobiography, and has been described as the "progenitor of Greek feminist thought".[94]
First decades after the liberation
Between 1830 and 1880, Romanticism was the dominant movement in Greek literature.[95] As the first Greek state consisted only of a small section of the present-day Greek mainland and a few islands, nationalism was ever-present in literature of the first decades, but gradually other themes emerged. The Ionian islands reunited with Greece in 1864 and continued being a major intellectual centre. Simultaneously, several men of letters from unredeemed lands had congregated in Athens, spurring the formation of the so-called First Athenian School. Moreover, many participants of the War of Independence, including Theodoros Kolokotronis, Christoforos Perraivos, Emmanuil Xanthos, and Nikolaos Kasomoulis, wrote memoirs. The importance of these testimonial texts lies not only on historiographical grounds, but on their literary value as well, since they are written in a lively demotic language.[96] Especially Ioannis Makriyannis's memoir, written between 1829 and 1850, is indeed considered a landmark of Greek literature.[97][98]
Heptanese literature was marked by Solomos reaching his poetical maturity, as well as by the appearance of many other authors. Poet and politician Aristotelis Valaoritis was a central figure of this new generation. He developed an epic manner with romantic contrasts, deriving his themes from the War of Independence and the acts of the klephts.[99] Georgios Tertsetis published a wide array of texts (eulogies, essays, journalism, plays, and lyric verse) and assisted Revolution veterans write their memoirs. Other writers include Iakovos Polylas, disciple of Solomos with important work on philology and translation, Andreas Laskaratos, noted for his satirical texts, and Gerasimos Markoras, best known for the heroic poem The Oath.
Alexandros Soutsos, who published his first poems during the War of Independence, is considered the initiator of the First Athenian School.[100] It is generally accepted that he and his brother Panagiotis introduced Romantic movement into liberated Greece.[101] Panagiotis Soutsos is known for his work on both poetry and prose, as well as for being the first to envisage and propose the revival of the ancient Olympic Games.[102]
Alexandros Rizos Rangavis was a multifarious author of great significance. He produced poetry, plays, dictionaries, books of philological and archaeological interest, and wrote Greece's first historical novel, The Lord of Morea (1850).[103] Demetrios Bernardakis (Maria Doxapatri - 1858, Fausta - 1893) was a major playwright of the time. However, as Katharevousa is an "un-theatrical" language, his work is largely forgotten.[104]
Initially, representatives of the Athenian School accepted the coexistence of the two languages, i.e. Demotic Greek and Katharevousa, but as time went on they championed the latter.[105] Its representatives took French Romanticism as a model, in contrast to the Ionian writers who were influenced by the Italian counterpart.[95]
Even though prose fiction was mostly cultivated in Athens, the foremost examples of this period were far from the spirit of the Athenian School. Iakovos Pitsipios' satire Xouth the Ape (1849) makes up Greece's first sociological novel.[106] The Papess Joanne (1866) is the best-known book of Emmanuel Rhoides, a fierce and indefatigable satirist. Inspired by the famous legend, it is today considered a classic of Greek literature.[107] Historical novel Loukis Laras (1879) by Demetrios Vikelas, a prolific author and translator, stands out for its naturalistic style and marked the beginning of a new era for Greek prose.[108]
New Athenian School and beyond
In the late 19th century, an influx of new literary movements (Parnassianism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Realism) rejuvenated Greek literature. 1880 is considered a watershed, due to the publication of two poetic collections that reflect this process: Spider Webs by Georgios Drossinis and Verses by Nikos Kambas. It is in fact the debut of a new poetical generation, known as the 1880s Generation or the New Athenian School.[109] Poets associated with it, stood for a rejection of Katharevousa and distanced themselves from Romantic form and content, which was now greatly based on rural life, village sketches, folk material, and everyday events.[110]
Kostis Palamas, who dominated the Greek literary scene for almost fifty years, is regarded as the chief proponent of the New Athenian School.[111][112] He produced some prose writings and a play, but he is best known as a poet and literary critic. Palamas promoted, perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, the use of the colloquial language in literature, establishing its eventual dominance.[111] Among his numerous poetic collections, perhaps the most important are Iambs and Anapests (1897), Life Immovable (1904), The Dodecalogue of the Gypsy (1907), and The King's Flute (1910).
Georgios Souris, frequently called "the modern Aristophanes",[113][114] was immensely popular at the time.[115] He contributed satirical poems to Asmodaios and held a high-esteemed literary salon at his home, which was frequented by the likes of Palamas, Zacharias Papantoniou, and Babis Anninos.[115]
Apart from those aforementioned, Aristomenis Provelengios, Georgios Stratigis, Ioannis Polemis, Kostas Krystallis, and Ioannis Gryparis are also considered members of the New Athenian School.[116] Perhaps the most prominent among them are Krystallis, famous for his bucolic poems, and Gryparis who wrote some of the finest sonnets of Greek literature.[117]
Constantine P. Cavafy, an adherent of Symbolism, Decadence, and Aestheticism, wrote both historical and lyric poetry with equally erotic sensibility, in a subtle mixture of demotic and purist Greek.[118][119] He denied or even ridiculed traditional values of Christianity, patriotism, and heterosexuality.[120] Cavafy was underestimated by his contemporaries, but his influence on subsequent generations to this day is unsurpassed.[118] He is one of the greatest poets of modern Greece, and probably the most famous abroad.[120][121] Among his best-known poems are Waiting for the Barbarians, Walls, Thermopylae, and Ithaca.
Kostas Varnalis produced a variety of writings, including prose and criticism, but he is principally revered for his poems reflecting his Marxist ideology. Particularly his compositions The Burning Light (1922) and Besieged Slaves (1927), characterized by effective satire and daring language, secured him a unique place in the history of modern Greek literature.[122] Varnalis was highly influential and is seen as the inaugural figure in the long tradition of 20th-century leftish Greek poetics.[118]
Other major poets who can be described as distinct cases are Lorentzos Mavilis and Angelos Sikelianos. Mavilis, an eminent sonneteer, saw his first poems published in the 1890s, but followed the Heptanese tradition, in which he incorporated symbolistic elements.[123] Sikelianos is renowned for his powerful lyricism and his use of free verse, the first Greek to do so.[124] He caught the readership's eyes with the collection The Light-Shadowed (1909) and by his death in 1951, he had left an extensive literary oeuvre that contains great richness of expression.[125]
Around the 1880s, a boom in short story publication reshaped prose writing.[126] A new type of narrative, ethography,[lower-alpha 4] was formed on the bases of Realism and Naturalism.[128] Its principal characteristic is the detailed depiction of a small, more or less contemporary, traditional community in its physical setting.[129] The heyday of ethography is roughly placed between 1880 and 1900.
Georgios Vizyinos, mainly a short-story writer, is thought of as the pioneer of modern Greek prose[130] He published most of his tales, including the iconic My Mother's Sin, Who Was the Killer of My Brother?, and The Only Journey of His Life, between 1883 and 1884.[131] Vizyinos was the first to deal with important issues of modern Greek literature, such as the concepts of ‘structure’ and ‘difference’, and the effectiveness of the literary text.[132]
Alexandros Papadiamantis stands among the most popular Greek prose writers.[133][134] A prolific author, he wrote over 200 novels, novellas and short stories,[135] of which The Merchants of the Nations (1883), The Gypsy Girl (1884), Dream on the Wave (1900), and The Murderess (1903) stand out. Papadiamantis used techniques unknown to Greek readers at the time,[136] and created an aesthetic mould that was closer to Greek reality.[134]
Another important exponent of ethography was Andreas Karkavitsas. He mostly wrote short stories, but his undoubted masterpiece is the novella The Beggar (1896). Like the other major prose writers of the time, he wrote in Katharevousa. However, he later became a strong supporter of Demotic.[137]
Grigorios Xenopoulos had an abundant output of short stories, novels, plays, and literary criticism. While his prose work is by no means of negligible significance, Xenopoulos is mostly revered for his contributions to theater; plays like The Secret of Countess Valeraina (1904), Fotini Santri (1908), and Stella Violanti (1909) have earned him the characterization of a "stunning figure" of modern Greek theatre.[138] He was also the co-founder of Nea Estia, the most prestigious literary periodical in Greece.[139]
Nikos Kazantzakis cannot be easily subsumed to any particular period; while his career began in 1906, his most successful works were published during the decade of 1940 and afterwards. These include the novels Zorba the Greek (1946), Christ Recrucified (1951), Captain Michalis (1953), and The Last Temptation (1955). The author himself however, considered the long poem Odyssey (1938) as his magnum opus.[140] He also wrote theatrical plays, travel books, memoirs and essays. Kazantzakis is extensively revered and is the most famous Greek novelist outside Greece.[140][141]
Konstantinos Theotokis wrote both prose and poetry. His best known works (Honor and Money - 1912, The Convict - 1919, Slaves in their Chains - 1922) lie in the realm of social realism.[142] Other authors of note from this period are Konstantinos Chatzopoulos and Dimosthenis Voutyras.
Penelope Delta has earned a special reputation with her books for young readers, and is recognized as the first great writer of children literature in Greece.[143] Some of her most widely read novels are Fairy Tale without Name (1910), In the Years of the Bulgar-Slayer (1911), and The Secrets of the Marshes (1937). Delta was also an avid supporter of the movement to universalize the use of the demotic language in school.[144]
The disastrous ending of the Greco-Turkish War in 1922 signalled a period of manifold crises. In poetry, the lofty style of Palamas and Sikelianos was replaced by gentle lyricism that sprang from the convergence of Symbolism and Aestheticism.[145] It was manifested by a distinct group of poets, sometimes called "the generation of 1920," whose main common characteristic was a feeling of decadence and pessimism.[146] In this group belong Napoleon Lapathiotis, Kostas Ouranis, Kostas Karyotakis, Tellos Agras, and Maria Polydouri. Karyotakis is generally regarded as the finest of them.[145][147] His poetry excellently renders the atmosphere of the time and has been very influential to future generations.[148][149] His suicide in 1928, at the age of 31, had a profound effect and set a fashion for melancholy and sardonic verse that became known as Karyotakism.[150]