Literature and Totalitarianism

The close monitoring of every artistic and intellectual movement by Metaxas’s has repeatedly been discussed. This monitoring was not achieved only in a direct way, i.e. through the imprisonment of intellectuals, book burnings or state censorship, but also by the implementation of various indirect tactics. All these tactics targeted to the limitation of negative reactions by the then Greek intelligentsia – or, at least, to stifle direct protest against the régime. Simultaneously, many bourgeois writers and artists seem either to had grown weary due to the very long political instability and social division, and to had become skeptical about the further strengthening of the leftwing, or they were undoubtedly plunged into a greater confusion, viewing the development of a sharp patriotic (if not nationalistic) rhetoric which was identified with the rise of totalitarian and authoritarian régimes throughout the world. In any case, any pertinent evidence needs to be carefully studied, on the one hand to explore the literary and intellectual interests of Metaxas himself, and on the other hand to clarify his personal views and the relationships of the 4th of August régime with intellectuals and artists, as well as of these latter with the dictator and the program of his administration. Furthermore, all this needs to be placed within the context of the actions of Metaxas’s régime, the way it was ruthlessly harsh on followers of the left, especially the communists, thousands of whom were sent to prison or into exile. At the same time, the seeming support of those who took up public positions needs careful analysis: each individual writer and artist had mixed motives and often considerable ambivalence, and each case needs exploration in its own terms.

George Andreiomenos [BA (Athens), PhD (Birmingham)] is currently Professor for Modern Greek Studies at the Dpt. of Philology, University of the Peloponnese, Greece, and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies of the same Institution. He has previously served as member of the teaching staff at the University of Patras and the Ionian University, Greece, and has repeatedly been elected in a number of academic posts (such as Vice Rector for Administration and Personnel and Head of the Dpt. of Philology at the University of the Peloponnese). He has published numerous books and papers and has participated in many conferences held in various countries.

In 1973 the political emigrants of Greece completed a quarter of a century of forced exile in the host socialist countries. A new generation of political refugees, with no memories or only vague recollections of Greece, grew up and socialized in the environment of a hybrid People's Democratic Republic of Greece, which was entering its final stage of existence. The Communist Party of Greece - KKE had already gone through two splits, the politicized mass of emigrants remained divided between the pro-Soviet KKE and the so-called KKE of the Interior, while strong differentiations from Moscow had also intervened in the socialist countries that hosted refugees from Greece. While the early stages of the settlement of political emigrants in the host countries have been researched to a satisfactory degree, there is a gap in terms of the changes that occurred in the last stage of their stay in socialist exil, shortly before the beginning of their spontaneous repatriation. This paper aims to trace through the pages of the refugee press of two countries, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and related archival material the perception of the shocking developments that took place in Greece in November 1973. This by analysing official party discourse in relation to the situation in which the KKE and the communities of emigrants had found themselves after their repeated splits.

Konstantinos Tsivos is Associate Professor at the Institute of Greek and Latin Studies and the head for Modern Greek Studies of the Faculty for Arts, Charles University in Prague. He teaches also with the Institute of Classics Studies in Masaryk University, Brno. His research focuses on Greek Civil War, especially the Greek Emigration, the history of Greek Communism, the Greek Crisis and the Greek-Czech relations. He teaches courses related to the new and modern Greek History, to Greek Realities, to the Byzantine History and courses of modern Greek language. He is author or co-author of books and articles in scientific magazines in Greek, Czech and English related with the modern Greek History, Greek Crisis and Czech-Greek relations. He also had translated to Greek language very known Czech authors from field of literature and the history.

The multifaceted personality of Thrassos Kastanakis, his diverse work, his involvement with almost all literary genres, as well as his dynamic presence in the Greek and French intellectual scene make the Constantinople writer a particularly attractive figure in the field of Modern Greek Literature. If, next to these, one adds his political ideology, which can be detected in a large part of his work, and his militant attitude towards the crucial historical issues of his time, it becomes clear that Thrassos Kastanakis’ writing is distinguished among others and for its political dimension. The period that is clearly influenced by the surrounding atmosphere and expresses more his fighting spirit and his leftist ideology is the period of the Second World War. Therefore, the aim of the proposed announcement is to investigate the political element in the author’s literary work, as well as in his articles in various magazines, which despite the gloomy climate of that time and the forced change that occurred in the life of Kastanakis and his wife, was rich. More specifically, the focus will be on his short stories and novels that are inspired by the tragic events of the Second World War and reflect how crucial were those moments, as well as on his writings that were published in the press of the time and have as basic theme the war and the resistance of the Greek people.

Vassiliki Theologou holds a PhD in Modern Greek Philology (2022). She got her MA degree in Modern Greek Literature in the Department of Medieval and Modern Greek Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki upon completion of four semesters of study (2013), as well as her BA degree in Philology, with a specialization in Medieval and Modern Greek Studies (2009). She has participated in Conferences in Greece, Great Britain, Russia and Sweden. From 2018 until 2021 she has been a fellow of the State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ). From 09/10/2013 until 31/08/2015 she was a researcher in the Centre for the Greek Language in Thessaloniki. Her research interests involve 19th and 20th century modern Greek literature, the gender studies and Thrassos Kastanakis’ work.

A direct consequence of the coup of the 21st April 1967 in Greece were mass arrests. Political persecution, torture and exile were regular practices which the Colonels resorted to in order to protect the nation, as they claimed. At the same time, they imposed strict censorship, which affected the Press, the publishing activity and any kind of artistic expression. The imposed censorship and the various forms it took led the writers of the time to an idiosyncratic attitude which involved performing a passive act of resistance known as "silence". At the end of July 1970 – after preventive censorship was lifted – the literary "silence" broke with the publication of the volume Eighteen Texts, which was followed by New Texts 1 and New Texts 2. In this paper I will study the textual body of the three volumes as an act of collective resistance against state authoritarianism. My primary aim will be to identify dystopian narratives which reflect the oppressive system of the Colonels focusing on the techniques through which the writers tried to capture the violence of the regime through the literary act. Secondly, I will detect the role of literature against political suppression and especially how literary texts can be put at at the service of resistance.

Theopi Polyzoidou is a PhD candidate in Greek Philology at the Democritus University of Thrace. Her thesis is entitled Writers and Power. The Case of Eighteen Texts, New Texts 1 and New Texts 2. In 2019, she was admitted to the Master's Program "Texts and Culture" of the same Department, receiving an achievement scholarship during her studies. The subject of her MA thesis was the correspondence between Stratis Tsirkas and Manto Aravantinou between 1970 and 1973, kept in the author's archive, which belongs to the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA). Her research interests extend to questions of post-war poetry and prose and publishing practices of archival material.

The Second Sophistic is defined as the period of letters "rebirth" and the "rewriting" of the Greek past. The emperors of the time, mainly the Flavians, contributed to this development by highlighting the art of rhetoric through the writing of works and the establishment of schools. The Romans were aware of Greek tradition and Greek models, which they promoted, wishing to promote their political ideology and propaganda. The rhetoricians of the time, the sophists, engaged with and imitated the earlier classical authors. The historical past was a topic of interest. The reworking of familiar historical and mythological themes was a preoccupation in the schools of rhetoric, the result of which were declamations, i.e. discourses of embellished presentation of the past. One of the rewriting subjects of the Greeks’ history was the Persian wars. Greco-Persian battles were extremely popular, as Spawforth and Swain note, ideologically serving both the Greeks and the Romans. The encouragement of this practice was accompanied by the provision of privileges and facilities, as literature was placed at the service and constituted a form of legitimization of the emperor’s and the imperial state’s role in protecting both halves of the civilized world.

Sandali Aikaterini Maria is a Ph. D. Student of the University of Athens. She was graduated from the Faculty of Philology of University of Athens and she has also fulfilled her postgraduate studies in Faculty of History and Archaeology of the same university. Her interests are focused on the period of the Second Sophistic and its authors. Specifically, she examines the antiquity’s reception in the Roman times. Her Ph. D. research is about “The cult and the image of Achilles in Roman time” which is an effort to prove the literary image of Achilles under the Roman empire.

The present paper aims to show how the establishment of the dictatorship in Greece during the years 1936 to 1944 affected the literature written up to that time about the lepers of Spinalonga, who lived in isolation on that island from 1904 to 1957. On the one hand, the books of Galatea Kazantzakis and Themos Kornaros (including Spinalonga and Community of the sick) were burned and the authors were sent into exile, not so much for the truth the books displayed, but because their authors were sympathizers of communism. Those novellas described the inhumane conditions in which the lepers lived on the island and provided a way for the authors to state their complains to the state authorities. On the other hand, if the dictatorship of the Metaxas brings with it the burning of books related to the lepers, the Italian-German invasion of Crete in 1941 will abrogate these people's previously obtained privileges (state pension, limited contact with the outside world) and many will die during that period due to hunger. Perhaps one of the most important aspects is the fact that the lepers managed to survive only by discussing their hardships with journalists like Petros Pikros, but once the dictatorship was established, these journalists were no longer allowed to publish anything about this subject. The works of these authors were only republished in 2010 due to the success of the novel The Island, by the British writer Victoria Hislop. In conclusion, my contribution to the research of this theme consists in comparing the literary sources which describe the changes that occurred in the lives of lepers at the political, social and economic level with the establishment of Metaxas's dictatorship and continuing with the Italian-German occupation. From this comparison, it appears that all the benefits they obtained during Eleftherios Venizelos' leadership were revoked once the dictatorship was established.

Iulia Grigore studied Philology at the University of Bucharest, her Major being Neo-Greek and her Minor being English. Then, she obtained the master's degree in Latin-Romanic translations (Greek language). Currently, she is a PhD student at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, at the University of Bucharest. She is interested in researching the way the leper colonies in Greece and Romania managed to survive from the 20th century until today. The research involves an in-depth analysis of the social, economic and political components of the colonies. Also, the research involves the social, anthropological, political, historical analysis of these colonies of people who lived in isolation for most of their lives.