An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature

This is a fully revised edition of Roger Beaton's 1994 introduction to the poetry and fiction published in Greek since national independence in 1821. It is the first full-length study to be devoted to the literature of this period, seen as a whole, and including developments up until the present day. The book highlights those writers and works which have enjoyed critical or popular acclaim, and emphasizes the relationships which link one work with another and with its historical context. It moves from the varying responses to European Romanticism which defined Greek literature in the nineteenth century, culminating in the work of Palamas and Cavafy in the first decades of this century, to the Modernist influenced work of the years from the 1920s to 1945. A post-war reaction against Modernism was followed by growing experimentation, and the book deals in detail with this most productive of periods in modern Greek literature. No knowledge of Greek is assumed, and all quotations are given in both Greek and English. An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature is an important source for both specialists and general readers, bringing to light a rich but neglected part of modern European literature.