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Abstract
Modern Greek poetry has been influenced by a tradition of lament that is still practiced in rural Greece, and by the tragic events of modern Greek history. In contrast to the elegiac tradition, laments and their women practitioners ascribe a positive value to pain. Male poets of the generation of 1930 made use of the imagery of folk lament in their poetry, and women poets of the second half of the 20th century addressed the dead directly as their village counterparts still do. The Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 dominated 20th-century modern Greek literature and drew on another traditional poetic form, the “lament for lost cities.” More recently, songwriters have mourned the political and economic tragedies of contemporary Greece in lyrics that seem much closer, in their expression of pain, to the tradition of lament than to elegy.
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Alexiou, Margaret. The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1974.
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Anghelaki-Rooke, Katerina.
Ποιήματα ’63–’69. Athens: Ermis, 1971. -
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Bachvarova, Mary “The Destroyed City in Ancient “World History” from Agade to Troy.” In Bachverova et al. eds, 36–78.
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Barnstone, Willis, ed. Eighteen Texts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1972.
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Dimoula, Kiki,
Χαίρε Ποτέ . Athens: Stigmi, 1988. -
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Fuss, Diana. Dying Modern: A Meditation on Elegy. Durham, NC: Duke UP: 2013.
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Fyssas, Pavlos. Σιγά μην κλάψω, 2012. https://stixoi.info/stixoi.php?info=Lyrics&act=details&song_id=62936.
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Gilbert, Sandra. Death’s Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve. New York: Norton, 2006.
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Hadzidaki, Rena. Κατάστασης πολιορκίας. Athens: Olkos, 1974.
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Holst-Warhaft, Gail. Dangerous Voices: Women’s Laments and Greek Literature. London: Routledge, 1992.
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Holst-Warhaft, Gail. Nisiotika: Music, Dances, and Bitter-Sweet Songs of the Aegean Islands. Evia (Greece): Denise Harvey, 2019.
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Holst-Warhaft, Gail. “A Sudden Longing: Lamenting the Lost of Smyrna.” In Bachvarova, 252–268.
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Jacobs, John. “The City Lament in the Ancient Near East.” In The Fall of Cities in the Mediterranean, ed. Bachvarova, et al., 13–35.
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Kassis, Kyriakos.
Μοιρολόγια της μέσα Μάνης . Athens: Author’s publication. 1979–81. -
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Το Αϊβαλή ,η πατρίδα μου . Athens: Ankyra, 1962. -
Loraux, Nicole, The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City (translation of L’invention d’Athènes) by Alan Sheridan. Cambridge Mass: Harvard UP.
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Mackridge, Peter. “The Two-Fold Nostalgia: Lost Homeland and Lost Time in the Work of G. Theotokas, E. Venezis and K. Politis.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 4:2 (1986), 75–83.
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Nagy, Gregory. “Ancient Greek Elegy.” In The Oxford Handbook of Elegy, ed. Karen Weisman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 13–45.
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Nikolakopoulou, Lina. “Μια σταγόνα βάσανο” (A Drop of Torture). 4 Feb. 2023. https://stixoi.info/stixoi.php?info=Lyrics&act=details&song_id=33237.
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Ramazani, Jahan. The Poetry of Mourning: The Modern Elegy from Hardy to Heaney. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
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Ritsos, Yiannis.
Επιτάφιος . Athens: Kedros, 1936. -
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Οι γειτονιές του κόσμου , 1949–51. Athens: Kedros. 1957. -
Sacks, Peter. The English Elegy: Studies in the Genre from Spenser to Yeats. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1985.
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Savvopoulos, Dionysis.
Τα Λόγια από τα τραγούδια . Athens: Ikaros, 1976. -
Seferis, George. “Mythistorema” In Collected Poems. Athens: Ikaros, 1989.
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Saunier, Guy. Ελληνικά δημοτικά τραγούδια – τα μοιρολόγια. Athens: Nefeli, 1999.
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Van Dyck, Karen. Kassandra and the Censors: Greek Poetry Since 1967. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998.
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Van Dyck, Karen (ed). Austerity Measures: The New Greek Poetry. New York: NYRB, 2016.
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| Abstract Views | 173 | 141 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 79 | 13 | 1 |
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Search for other papers by Gail Holst-Warhaft in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Modern Greek poetry has been influenced by a tradition of lament that is still practiced in rural Greece, and by the tragic events of modern Greek history. In contrast to the elegiac tradition, laments and their women practitioners ascribe a positive value to pain. Male poets of the generation of 1930 made use of the imagery of folk lament in their poetry, and women poets of the second half of the 20th century addressed the dead directly as their village counterparts still do. The Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 dominated 20th-century modern Greek literature and drew on another traditional poetic form, the “lament for lost cities.” More recently, songwriters have mourned the political and economic tragedies of contemporary Greece in lyrics that seem much closer, in their expression of pain, to the tradition of lament than to elegy.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 173 | 141 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 79 | 13 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 135 | 40 | 4 |