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Is it Modern literature?...or Contemporary literature?

Petros Abatzoglou
Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke
Nikos Kazantzakis
Jazra Khaleed
Amanda Michalopoulou
Costas Taktsis
Vassilis Vassilikos
Yoryis Yatromanolakis
Modern Greek Writers Series

All are modern and in the twentieth-twenty-first centuries. The Modern Greek Literature, Wiki says, extends back to the eleventh century when medieval Greek language was still in use, and continues forward to today! The span seems at first too comprehensive until you remember that Ancient Greece begins during Homer's time, 800 BCE. This early date is not definitive among reference works. Literary highlights of the Modern include poets Costis Palamas, Constantine P. Cavafy, and Kostas Karyotakis, and proser Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek). Contemporary, a term for the most recent, begins in 1974. An example of modern (before 1974) is 'Denial', a poem written by a Greek Nobel Laureate, Giorgos Seferis:

On the secret seashore
white like a pigeon
we thirsted at noon;
but the water was brackish.

On the golden sand
we wrote her name;
but the sea-breeze blew
and the writing vanished.

With what spirit, what heart,
what desire and passion
we lived our life: a mistake!
So we changed our life.

After 1974 the contemporary begins--already 36 years ago. Greece as a place apart has fascinated and inspired other writers. One poet is Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Author Patrick Kanouse whose "Portrait of a Woman Brushing Her Hair and Other Poems" (PDF-book, 2007) is set in the Aegean and Mediterranean. and is both modern and contemporary. Tom Clark's "The Greece Poem", which I haven't yet read from "The Paris Review"(Issue 36, Winter 1966), seems fitting, too. How the modern and contemporary differ is a question for inquiry. What is the significance of 1974?

The National Book Centre of Greece:
(past issues of ITHACA ONLINE)
(Leading Authors)



(George Seferis Interview)

I recently read the author Menis Koumandareas, translated by Kay Cicellis, of the contemporary novella, "Koula", the principal character, an older female, who discovers a more hopeful, satisfying outlook after an affair with a young student, with whom she develops a relationship after they travel the same commuter train. Ana Lucic interviewed Koumandareas about this story

About the author:



About the translator:

These are from "Greece: A Brief Guide", a web resource.

("Books about Greece")

("Greek Literature")

Poets who are women:

Modern Greek Literature
Literature of Authors of Greek origin
by Michael Lahanas

'Words without Borders, a webzine, has an interesting collection of books by modern Greek authors and notes the effects of the influx and diaspora on what is Greek.

Some modern Greek literature titles that have been recently added to the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ database --> http://www.goodreads.com/group/booksh...

okyrhoe wrote: "Some modern Greek literature titles that have been recently added to the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ database --> http://www.goodreads.com/group/booksh..."

Wonderful selections. There might be one more reading after Gary's mystery novel. Thank you.