Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:08:36.165Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reading between Worlds: Contemporary Greek Women's Writing and Censorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Karen Van Dyck
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay accounts for the recent prominence of women's writing in Greece by examining how women writers applied writing strategies developed under the dictatorship (1967–74) to their critique of fixed gender roles. Margarita Karapanou's novel Kassandra and the Wolf deconstructs the victor-victim opposition and poses the process of inversion itself as a position from which to write. Jenny Mastoraki's collection of poems Tales of the Deep works out a similar perspective formally, suggesting that such a position requires that the order of language also be disturbed. By analyzing these texts in the historical context of the dictatorship and in the theoretical contexts of feminist works such as Christa Wolf's Cassandra and Luce Irigaray's Speculum of the Other Woman, I show how Karapanou's and Mastoraki's responses to censorship are not individual exceptions but key components of recent Greek women's writing.

Type
Special Topic: Literature and Censorship
Information
PMLA , Volume 109 , Issue 1: Special Topic Literature and Censorship , January 1994 , pp. 45 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Alexiou, Margaret The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1974.Google Scholar
Anghelaki-Rooke, Katerina Beings and Things on Their Own. Trans. Jackie Willcox, with Anghelaki-Rooke. Brockport: BOA, 1986.Google Scholar
Anghelaki-Rooke, Katerina The Body Is the Victory and the Defeat of Dreams. Trans. Ramp, Philip. San Francisco: Wire, 1975.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter “The Task of the Translator.” Illuminations. Ed. and introd. Arendt, Hannah. Trans. Zohn, Harry. New York: Harcourt, 1968. 69–82.Google Scholar
Borneman, John After the Wall. New York: Basic, 1991.Google Scholar
Carby, Hazel “White Women Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood.” The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in Seventies Britain. London: Hutchinson, 1982. 212–21.Google Scholar
Cavafy, C. P Collected Poems. Trans. Keeley, Edmund and Sherrard, Philip. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1975.Google Scholar
Cavafy, C. P A' [Poems 1]. Athens: Ikaros, 1963.Google Scholar
Clogg, Richard “The Ideology of the ‘Revolution of 21 April 1967.‘” Greece under Military Rule. Ed. Clogg and Yannopoulos, George. New York: Basic, 1972. 36–58.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques “Des Tours de Babel.” Difference in Translation. Ed. and trans. Graham, Joseph F. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985. 165–248.Google Scholar
Douka, Maro H [Fool's Gold]. Athens: Kedros, 1979.Google Scholar
Douka, Maro Fool's Gold. Trans. Beaton, Roderick. Athens: Kedros, 1991.Google Scholar
Fakinou, Eugenia To [The Seventh Garment]. Athens: Kedros, 1983.Google Scholar
Fakinou, Eugenia The Seventh Garment. Trans. Emery, Ed. London: Serpent's Tail, 1992.Google Scholar
Franco, Jean “Going Public: Reinhabiting the Private.” On Edge: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American Culture. Ed. Yúdice, George, Franco, Jean, and Flores, Juan. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1992. 65–83.Google Scholar
Frandzi, Adia, et al Y; [So, Is There Women's Poetry?]. Athens: Etaireia Spoudon, 1990.Google Scholar
Freud, Anna The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence. Trans. Baines, Cecil. Ed. Sutherland, John D. London: Hogarth; Inst. of Psychoanalysis, 1986.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund The Interpretation of Dreams. Trans. Strachey, James. Ed. Richards, Angela. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1976.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund On Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis. Trans. Strachey, James. Ed. Richards, Angela. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1984.Google Scholar
Fuss, Diana Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference. London: Routledge, 1989.Google Scholar
Galanaki, Rea To [The Cake]. Athens: Kedros, 1980.Google Scholar
Gallop, Jane “The Father's Seduction.” The (M) Other Tongue: Essays in Feminist Psychoanalytic Interpretation. Ed. Garner, Shirley Nelson, Kahane, Claire, and Sprengnether, Madelon. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985. 33–50.Google Scholar
Hafner, Katie “A Nation of Readers Dumps Its Writers.” New York Times Magazine 10 Jan. 1993: 22+.Google Scholar
Hauser, Komelia “Sexuality and Power.” Female Sexualization. Ed. Haug, Frigga. London: Verso, 1987. 185–230.Google Scholar
Herzfeld, Michael Anthropology through the Looking-Glass: Critical Ethnography in the Margins of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987.Google Scholar
Herzfeld, Michael Ours Once More: Folklore, Ideology, and the Making of Modern Greece. Austin: U of Texas P, 1982.Google Scholar
Holst-Warhaft, Gail Dangerous Voices: Women's Laments and Greek Literature. London: Routledge, 1992.Google Scholar
Hooks, Bell Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End, 1989.Google Scholar
Huyssen, Andreas “After the Wall: The Failure of German Intellectuals.” New German Critique 52 (1991): 109–10.Google Scholar
Irigaray, Luce Je, tu, nous. Pour une culture de la différence. Paris: Grasset, 1990.Google Scholar
Irigaray, Luce Speculum of the Other Woman. Trans. Catherine Porter, with Carolyn Burke. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985. Trans. of Speculum de l'autre femme. 1974.Google Scholar
Johnson, Barbara “The Frame of Reference: Poe, Lacan, Derrida.” The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading. Ed. Muller, John P. and Richardson, William J. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1988.213–51.Google Scholar
Journal of Modern Greek Studies 8.2 (1990): 169–343.Google Scholar
Jusdanis, Gregory Belated Modernity and Aesthetic Culture: Inventing National Literature. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1991.Google Scholar
Karapanou, Margarita Kassandra and the Wolf. Trans. Germanacos, Nick. New York: Harcourt, 1974.Google Scholar
Karapanou, Margarita [Kassandra and the Wolf]. Athens: Ermis, 1976.Google Scholar
Karapanou, Margarita O [The Sleepwalker]. Athens: Ermis, 1985.Google Scholar
Spoudon, Kendro Marxistikon H [The Influence of Marxist Ideas on Our Literature]. Athens: Kendavros: 1986.Google Scholar
Kotzias, Alexander [Jaguar]. Athens: Kedros, 1987.Google Scholar
Kotzias, Alexander Jaguar. Trans. H. E. Criton, Athens: Kedros, 1991.Google Scholar
Kyr “” [“Lysistrata”]. Cartoon. 1 Mar. 1974: 15.Google Scholar
Laina, Maria [Hers]. Athens: Keimena, 1985.Google Scholar
Lambropoulos, Vassilis Literature as National Institution: Studies in the Politics of Modern Greek Criticism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1988.Google Scholar
Mackridge, Peter “Katharevousa (c. 1800–1974): An Obituary for an Official Language.” Background to Contemporary Greece. Ed. Sarafis, Marion and Eve, Martin. Vol. 1. London: Barnes, 1990. 25–51.Google Scholar
Maronitis, D. N “To ” [A Justice All Her Own]. Rev. of , by Jenny Mastoraki, and , by Maria Laina. 23 May 1985: 16.Google Scholar
Maronitis, D. N [Short and Medium Short]. Athens: Kedros, 1987.Google Scholar
Mastoraki, Jenny [Tolls]. Athens: Kedros, 1972.Google Scholar
Mastoraki, Jenny [Tales of the Deep]. Athens: Kedros, 1983.Google Scholar
Mastoraki, Jenny Letter to the author. 17 Nov. 1992.Google Scholar
Mastoraki, Jenny M' [With a Crown of Light]. Athens: Kedros, 1989.Google Scholar
Mastoraki, Jenny To [Kin]. Athens: Kedros, 1978.Google Scholar
Moi, Toril Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. London: Methuen, 1985.Google Scholar
Pamboudi, Pavlina [He I]. Thessaloniki: Mikri Egnatia, 1977.Google Scholar
Papadopoulos, Yeorgios To [My Credo]. Vol. 2. Athens: Press Office, 1968.Google Scholar
Roidis, Immanuel [Philological Studies]. Athens: Fexi, 1913.Google Scholar
Serematakis, Nadia The Last Word: Women, Death, and Divination in Inner Mani. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991.Google Scholar
Silverman, Kaja The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988.Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty “French Feminism in an International Frame.” In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. London: Methuen, 1987. 206–20.Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty “French Feminism Revisited: Ethics and Politics.” Feminists Theorize the Political. Ed. Butler, Judith and Scott, Joan. London: Routledge, 1992. 54–85.Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty “The Politics of Translation.” Destabilizing Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates. Ed. Barrett, Michèle and Philips, Anne. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1992. 177–200.Google Scholar
Stamiris, Eleni “The Women's Movement in Greece.” New Left Review 158 (1986): 98–112.Google Scholar
Valtinos, Thanasis [Dark Blue Almost Black]. Athens: Stigmi, 1986.Google Scholar
Van Dyck, Karen Cassandra and the Censors: Greek Poetry since 1967. Ithaca: Cornell UP, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Varika, Eleni H [The Women's Revolt]. Athens: Idrima Erevnas kai Paideias, 1987.Google Scholar
Vitti, Mario [History of Modern Greek Literature]. Trans. Myrsini Zorba. Athens: Odysseas, 1987.Google Scholar
Vizyenos, Yeorgios “” [“Who Was My Brother's Killer?”]. To [My Mother's Sin]. Athens: Estias, 1973. 41–99.Google Scholar
Vizyenos, Yeorgios “Who Was My Brother's Killer?” “My Mother's Sin” and Other Stories. Trans. Wyatt, William F. Jr. Hanover: UP of New England, 1988. 53–94.Google Scholar
Wolf, Christa Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays. Trans. van Heurck, Jan. London: Virago, 1984.Google Scholar
Wolf, Christa The Fourth Dimension: Interviews with Christa Wolf. Trans. Hilary Pilkington. Introd. Karin McPherson. London: Verso, 1988.Google Scholar
Zei, Alki Achilles' Fiancée. Trans. Holst-Warhaft, Gail. Athens: Kedros, 1991.Google Scholar
Zei, Alki H [Achilles's Fiancée]. Athens: Kedros, 1987.Google Scholar