Disrupting Fading National Identities and Questioning the Identity of Faith: Identifying Papadiamantis
Nicholas A. E. Kalospyros
Although it might seem an academic-literary commonplace to argue about Papadiamantis’ literary identity –who initiated a lengthy ‘school’ in modern Greek letters–, and it would also seem inevitable for me to draw his ideological maxims from my florilegium or gnomologium Papadiamanticum 1, I intend to focus on some further aspects, not so common-bound, about the spectre of his authorship and its inner identity articulated in his narrative techniques. Critical readings of Papadiamantis’ fiction have frequently been framed either by emotive concerns to highlight his ideological manifesto towards an Eastern Greek identity and by academics reproaching his fear for the adulteration of national traditions or the respective modest exile from such ad hoc illusions. The further attestation of both national identities, imperative in the writer’s epoch but steadily fading in his own understanding, and the consenting identity of religious faith, disputed but highly appraised in his unique world, creates aspects of literary importance towards his stylistic compliance and awaits philological interpretation in the self-assertive tone of Papadiamantical imagery. Concerning bibliographical issues his identity could be stated as dilemmatic and controversial, due to secular interests and relative confrontations of his readers disencumbering of their own ideas against or in favour of an exclusively Byzantine entity. I shall not refrain from inquiring in his authentic literary identity by intimating its three main aspects: i) enargeia (aspiring to lyricism and ecphrasis , vividness), ii) agonizing and fighting merit (Orthodox Christian faith and upright liturgical life), and iii) classical scholarship (to stylistic experience); all things considered, an identity transcendental and consciously integrated. In order to render the importance of overt and covert readings of texts, each providing an insight into aspects of our own cultural identities or the norms which we use to form our concept of other people’s cultural identities 2, we may trace the understanding of any individual writer as a coherent whole subject to a collection of various cultural identifiers from a variety of aspects including: place, race, history, nationality and ethnicity, language, gender and sexual parameters, religious beliefs and aesthetics. Even as a ‘historical reservoir’, yet a social process in which individuals participate in the context of changing historical conditions, culture forms an important factor in shaping identity; such identity politics prepared by nationalist and romanticist movements engraved the Greek past since the European Enlightenment, bursting in the nineteenth-century horizon like a deliberative age of transition 3. If Greek history had to be continuously reinterpreted, which one of the following ethnonyms was tenuous enough to be relinquished: Romans, Greeks, or Hellenes? 4 To adopt any of these could prove more perplexed than reliable both in the
1 Kalospyros 2005. 2 On the importance of cultural identities see Hall & Du Gay 1996 and Alcoff & Mendieta 2003. 3 See Tziovas 2003 and Beaton & Ricks 2009 on relevant perceptions and cultural encounters of the modern Greek state; for the respective evaluation in modern times Robyn 2005 and Demossier 2007 on the political structuring of European cultural identities. 4 There is an extensive bibliography on the historical use of these three ethnonyms; among others see mainly Mantouvalou 1983, Dimaras 1985: 82-86, Christou 1993, Beaton 2007, Page 2008: 27-71. context of nationalism and in the appreciation of positive elements of identity such as those familiar to Papadiamantis himself: close family ties, adherence to the perceived political and cultural essence of ancient Hellenism, and the combination of humane personalist values and liturgical life in corpus Christi . It is known that ‘the political imperial identity foundered, giving place to a religious identity that was essentially distinct from the imperial tradition, and to an ethnic identity that emerged into and gained weight within the public consciousness of the Romans as a result of the enforced encounter with the Latins of the west’ 5. Papadiamantis’ choice, the growth of Orthodox identity 6 and his refusal to conflate Greek nationalism and the Orthodox faith, is historically attained; therefore, his disavowal of Graeculism 7, a generating symptom of national inferiority or of collective identity under crisis. Thus, R. Shannan Peckham focused on Papadiamantis’ novel The Gypsy Girl (1884) to show how his narrative dramatizes contending versions of Hellenism and inquires into Byzantium’s relations to nineteenth-ventury Greece 8, arguing that in The Gypsy Girl we may explore the incoherences of an ideology that vigorously promoted an archaeological model of culture in late nineteenth-century Greece. So far we can realize Papadiamantis’ standards of the most sorely Hellenism of the last centuries supported by Lord Byron’s awareness: ‘ Η τουρκική βία και ο λατινικός δόλος ! Αι λέξεις αύται δεν είναι ιστορικόν σύ βολον , παραστατικόν της τύχης του πολυπαθούς Ελληνισ ού; Πόσον ενδο ύχως σθάνετο και κατενόει ο έγας Βρεττανός την θέσιν της Ελλάδος , την τότε και την διαρκή και την παντοτινήν! Και πόσον απέχο εν η είς να την εννοήσω εν και να την αισθανθώ εν ! Ο Βύρων ήτο αρχαίος Έλλην κατά την καρδίαν , κατά το πνεύ α και κατά το φρόνη α . Ήτο αρχαίος Έλλην της ΙΘ΄ εκατονταετηρίδος , τέλειος ανήρ και κοσ οπολίτης ’ [5.260.4-12]9. There is a constant danger that approaches to identity are reducible to the search for diversity, a matter of cultural fictions and cultural identity, as if competing myths explaining the origin of polis could be used again to support overriding of otherness; e.g. like military dominant Rome that chose Aeneas to incorporate Greek, or like Jews, a depending minority, who asserted primacy by inventing Greek descent for Abraam. Papadiamantis’ complaint, however, is nourished in his identified classical scholarship as literary identity. His classical allusions are like a sort of infusive memory, a kind of inherited identity realized through linguistic expectations. His attitude towards modern Greeks and Franks, his relations with Athens and Skiathos, his narratives of identity are not metaphors awaiting their interpretation by critics or a modern transcription of Pausanias’ text; a text that has long been regarded as a pedantic and antiquarian tourist guide, still showing how Greeks of the 2nd cent. A.D. coped with a burden of a distinguished past weighing on their political identity, with the contemporary politics of Greece’s status as a Roman province, and with the profound sense of the sacred with which so much of antique culture was imbued 10 . The happenings and scheming of everyday’s world are temperately infiltrated in his
Hokwerda 2003 on identity and historical consciousness of the Greek past (see also Carras 1983 and Hall 1997). 5 Page 2008: 281. 6 Makrides 1993 discusses Orthodoxy’s role in Greek anti-Occidentalism. For an account of Papadiamantis’ religious journalism see Ricks 2009. 7 See Dimitrakopoulos 2000. 8 See Shannan Peckham 1998. 9 All references to novels, tales and articles of Papadiamantis appear in square brackets and refer by volume, page and lines’ number, to the critical edition by N. D. Triantaphyllopoulos Αλέξανδρος Παπαδια άντης Άπαντα , vol. 1-5, Athens: Domos Editions, 1981-1988 (some repr. in 1989). 10 See Elsner 1992. classical scholarship and reduced to their classical image in the case-history of the human subject suffering grief. The classical authors’ logos reveals temporal aspects of human personality, all of which could be regarded as a precursory (in the sense of pre- Christian theology) philosophy, for Papadiamantis prefers to invoke classical passages as his own commentary upon futility, beauty, friction or prosaicism of everyday speech, in order to preserve acclaimed testimonies of Hellenic-tempered life and stoic mood. Nevertheless, in Papadiamantis’ fiction the knowledge of Greek thought and life turns to an ontological consideration of protagonistic beings –not a psychological one. Denouncing philological and ideological differentiations he cannot but ironically face the alienating voices that pretend manichaistic versions of modern Greek particularity deprived of rectilinear kinship: ‘Μη θρησκευτικά, προς Θεού! Το Ελληνικόν Έθνος δεν είναι Βυζαντινοί, εννοήσατε ; Οι ση ερινοί Έλληνες είναι κατ ’ ευθείαν διάδοχοι των αρχαίων . Έπειτα επολιτίσθησαν , επροώδευσαν και αυτοί. Συ βαδίζουν ε τάλλα έθνη ’ [2.515.30-33]. By upholding the poetical spirit and the freedom of thinking, achievements resulting from the ancient era, which were afterwards transmuted in ecclesiastical speech of Orthodox transcendence, he gains an obvious agreement with the priest from Βαρδιάνος στα σπόρκα , who appeals to the SS. Martyrs Floros and Lavros so as to eliminate the epidemic of cholera ‘όπως τον παλαιόν καιρόν είχον ελευθερώσει τον κόσ ον από την νοητήν χολέραν , την ειδωλολατρίαν ’ [2.587.31-33]. He derives the poeticality treasured up in the didactic myths of antiquity to conciliate the two undisputable layers of modern Hellenism – pre-Christian culture and Eastern/Orthodox religion– and to drive them into its unique synthesis 11 . For instance, in his story Στην Αγι -Αναστασά (a tale with intense autobiographical hints adequate of setting a personal mythography) he comments upon the naming of the building named after: ‘ Αγία Αναστασιά εκαλείτο . Ίσως το πάλαι να ήτο ναός της Κόρης της εξ δου ή της Εκάτης της φαρ ακίδος , και οι χριστιανοί, οι φυσικοί κληρονό οι της θανούσης ειδωλολατρίας , τον εβάπτισαν ετονο άσαντες ναόν της Φαρ ακολυτρίας , κατ ’ αντίφρασιν , ή της Ρω αίας , απλώς κατά σχέσιν ετυ ολογικήν’ [2.347.19-23]. In shaping these transgressions he does not imitate the emblematization of Alexandrian writers, i.e. the adaptation of ancient myths and metaphors consistent of nymphs and springs and their association with inspiration, pure sources and origination 12 . In another passage from the travel story Ταξίδι -Βαπόρι -Ρω έικο constructed on first-person narration he reveals the sense of continuity, the feeling of true and legal inheritance of the ancient Greek culture, whereas the navigator by the cape of Sounion addresses his friendly greetings to his ancestors: ‘Είδα τον ναόν της Αθηνάς, είδα τα ερείπια της Σουνιάδος , είδα τους κίονας της Παρθένου , να δέχωνται την ελιχράν σκιαύγειαν των βελών και των φίλτρων της Εκάτης , επί των γυ νών και ηγιασ ένων και χρισ ένων από τας θυέλλας και από τους αιώνας αρ άρων των . Παρ ’ ολίγον θα έστελλα φίλη α διά της χειρός... αλλ ’ είχα λησ ονήσει προ πολλού πώς στέλλονται τα φιλή ατα . Ακουσίως έκα α τον σταυρόν ου . Ο Χριστιανός της σή ερον έστελλε διά έσου ογδοήκοντα γενεών θρησκευτικόν χαιρετισ όν εις τον ειδωλολάτρην τον προ είκοσι και πέντε αιώνων ’ [5.247.26-35] 13 . Like many scholars of the Byzantine era Papadiamantis perceived ancient literature in the notion of anima antiqua naturaliter Christiana –not paganistic rituals and customs, as long as he prefers ancient poetic heathenism rather than secularized and ostensible Christianity: ‘Εδώ θεοποιείται φανερά ο Μα ωνάς. Χιλιάκις καλλίτερον θα ήτο εάν υπήρχεν ακό η η αρχαία ποιητική ειδωλολατρία.
11 See Kalospyros 2002: 205-210. 12 On which see e.g. Depew 2007. 13 Cf. 5.158.6-16. Τώρα ό ως η πράγ ατι επικρατούσα θρησκεία είνε ο πλέον ακάθαρτος και κτηνώδης υλισ ός. Μόνον κατά πρόσχη α είνε η Χριστιανοσύνη ’ [4.608.5-9]. Besides, he wonders with pleasantry testing his readers: ‘ τίς συγγραφεύς υπήρξεν όστις δεν υποκατέστησεν ενίοτε εαυτόν εις τας σκέψεις του ήρωός του ;’ [2.329.25-26]. His stylistic scholarship implies not simply an aesthetic encounter, another issue of literary reception of a common philological identity, but his specific mediation between historical contemplation and successive canonization of forms of experience. Having undergone the justification of ancient inheritance through his classical scholarship embedded in mythographic and anthropological conditions, he aspires to entertain and accommodate Orthodox faith. Nothing is left estranged, then, even the goddess of love, though censured by moralizers: ‘ Πάντες οι θεοί εγκατελείφθησαν , και ουχί αύτη όνη . Τουναντίον , αύτη ήττον των άλλων εγκατελείφθη . Πάντες οι θεοί εσυκοφαντήθησαν , αλλ ’ ουχί όσον αυτή . Πάντων των αιώνων οι υποκριταί και οι ταρτούφοι , υπέρ πάσας τας θεάς την Κύπριδα εσυκοφάντησαν . εν υπήρξε βω ολοχία και ψεύδος , όπερ να η εξετόξευσαν κατά της απλουστάτης ταύτης και αθ οτάτης θεότητος , ήτις επλάσθη κατά φύσιν , ως έπρεπε να πλασθ , και ουδέν έγκλη α είχε . εν υπήρξεν ιλύς και βόρβορος , δι ’ ου δεν έχραναν το πρόσωπον της θεάς ταύτης οι ζοφεροί του εσαίωνος τρωγλοδύται , δεν υπήρξε ράκος δι ’ ου δεν εζήτησαν να καλύψωσι την γυ νότητα της περικαλλούς ταύτης ορφής οι σε νότυφοι εκείνοι σχολαστικοί! Και εν τ κρυπτ εν έθυον εις αυτήν και εις τον ιόνυσον και εις την αγέλην αυτού, εν τ φανερ δε ύβριζον και διέσυρον . Παρηγορήθητι , ατυχής θεά, έχρις ου έλθ η έρα καθ ’ ην πάντες οι λατρευταί σου αναφανδόν εις σε θα θύωσι , και ουδείς θα τολ πλέον να σε συκοφαντήσ ’ [1.650.30-651.8]. In the same novel (The Gypsy Girl ) he confesses his cultural politics –if I am permitted to express in such a way– whilst describing Plethon’s den: ‘ Εν κεφαλαί δε ειπείν, το άσυλον τούτο του ειδωλολάτρου διά των λειψάνων τούτων της αγλαο όρφου αρχαιότητος , άτινα περιέθαλπεν , απέπνεεν ως τελευταίαν τινά πνοήν των απαρα ίλλων εκείνων τύπων της τέχνης και του κάλλους , των τελειοτάτων εκείνων ύθων , των διδακτικωτέρων της ιστορίας , των αληθεστέρων της πραγ ατικότητος , των ανεφίκτων εκείνων αριστοτεχνη άτων , ων η αίγλη αντιλά πει διά των γενεών έχρι της σή ερον , ων η πρόσκαιρος συγκάλυψις έκα ε τόσους αιώνας να ελανει ονώσιν , ων η κατάργησις διέχυσε πένθος και σκοτίαν επί του προσώπου της γης...’ [1.651.17-25]. It is time to reach the glittering intercession of Papadiamantis’ identity passage, which was brandished against him by many self-appointed fans of the Zoilos the Homeromastix, who tried to assert their own myopic view and ideological predisposition against his sincere profession of literary position 14 : ‘ Το επ’ ε οί, ενόσ ζω και αναπνέω και σωφρονώ, δεν θα παύσω πάντοτε , ιδίως δε κατά τας πανεκλά πρους ταύτας η έρας , να υ νώ ετά λατρείας τον Χριστόν ου , να περιγράφω ετ ’ έρωτος την φύσιν και να ζωγραφώ ετά στοργής τα γνήσια ελληνικά ήθη ’. Is it a matter of ideological stance against the contemporary Greeklings, the deificators of Mammon? Is it another devotion standardized in adorable hymns to his Christ, lovingly natural descriptions and affectionate painting of genuine Greek customs? His ‘confession’ must not be amputated from its eloquent context in ‘Λα πριάτικος Ψάλτης ’: ‘Αλλά τα πλείστα των υπ ’ ε ού γραφέντων εορτασί ων διηγη άτων έχουσιν , ας ου επιτραπ ο λατινικός όρος , a priori την υπόθεσιν , είναι δηλαδή άλλον θρησκευτικά. – Ποίαν χάριν , σας παρακαλώ, ποίαν δύνα ιν ή πρωτοτυπίαν θα είχε το να λάβ τις τον κόπον να περιγράψ λεπτο ερώς πώς
14 See Kalospyros 2005: 9-29 ( Introduction or Papadiamantis The Thinker ) on his ‘ideology’. χωρικός ιερεύς απήλθε να λειτουργήσ εις εξωκκλήσιον , χάριν ικράς κοινότητος αγροίκων ή βοσκών, ποίοι και πόσοι ετέσχον της πανηγύρεως , και ποίά τινα ήσαν τα ήθη των πανηγυριστών; Τούτο θα ήτο όλως ευτελές και ταπεινόν , κατά την γνώ ην των κριτικών. Το να γράψ τις , ότι γηραιός ανήρ εφόνευσε την συ βίαν του , κατ ’ αυτήν την η έραν των Χριστουγέννων – χωρίς ήτε ο αναγνώστης ήτε ο συγγραφεύς να υποπτεύωσι κάν διατί την εφόνευσε –, τούτο είναι υψηλόν και πολυτελές , κατά την εκτί ησιν ερικών. Μετά τοιούτον έγκλη α κατ ’ αυτήν την αγίαν η έραν , το θέ α εξηντλήθη , και όλα τα Χριστουγεννιάτικα και τα πασχαλινά διηγή ατα δεν πρέπει πλέον να βλέπωσι το φως. Μη θρησκευτικά , προς Θεού! Το Ελληνικόν Έθνος δεν είναι Βυζαντινοί , ενοήσατε; Οι ση ερινοί Έλληνες είναι κατ ’ ευθείαν διάδοχοι των αρχαίων . Έπειτα επολιτίσθησαν , επροώδευσαν και αυτοί . Συ βαδίζουν ε τάλλα έθνη . Ποίαν ποίησιν έχει το να γράψ ς ότι ο Χριστός “δέχεται την λατρείαν του πτωχού λαού”, και ότι ο πτωχός ιερεύς “προσέφερε τ Θε θυσίαν αινέσεως ”; Και να περιγράφ ς το εσωτερικόν του ναΐσκου , ε τας νυσταλέας κανδήλας και τας α αυράς ορφάς των Αγίων ολόγυρα ! εν τα εννοού εν η είς αυτά . Η είς θέλο εν διήγη α , το οποίον να είναι όλον ποίησις , όχι πεζή πραγ ατικότης . Συ δε πώς τολ ς να γράφ ς, ο ιλών περί Ιουλιανού του Παραβάτου , καρφω νου εις τον τοίχον από την λ γχην του Αγ. Μερκουρίου , τοιαύτην βλάσφη ον φράσιν : “Πελιδνός ο παράφρων τύραννος ...”; Όταν συγγραφεύς άλλος , και άλλης περιωπής δη οσιεύσας προ ετών ιστορικοφανταστικόν δρά α , προέτασσε χυδαία αληθώς προλεγό ενα , δι ’ ων ύβριζε βαναύσως την θρησκείαν των πατέρων του –τότε ουδείς λόγος ήτο όπως σκανδαλισθ τις , διότι το πράγ α ήτο της όδας . Αλλά σύ , να τολ ς να εκφράζεσαι ε τοιαύτην ασεβή γλώσσαν περί του Ιουλιανού εκείνου , του Παραβάτου ή Αποστάτου καλου ένου –η θρασύτης υπερβαίνει παν όριον . Και ό ως ο σοφός επικριτής δεν ενόησεν ότι η φράσις ήτο εξ αντικει ένου , όπως λέγουσιν αυτοί· απέδιδε δηλ . διά λέξεων τα χρώ ατα του ζωγράφου· και ότι παν ζήτη α περί των δοξασιών του γράφοντος ( όστις εν τούτοις δεν αρνείται ότι συ ερίζεται την γνώ ην του Βυζαντινού τοιχογράφου ) παρέλκει όλως . ιά να δώσω εν πέρας εις το προοί ιον αυτό , θα είπω εν ε δύο λέξεις ότι : Το ση ερινόν έθνος δεν επήγε , δυστυχώς, τόσον ε πρός , όσον λέγουν αυτοί . Το έθνος το ελληνικόν , το δούλον τουλάχιστον , είναι ακό η πολύ οπίσω , και το ελεύθερον δεν δύναται να τρέξ αρκετά ε πρός , χωρίς το όλον να διασπαραχθ , ως διασπαράσσεται , φευ! ήδη . Ο τρέχων πρέπει να περι έν και τον επό ενον , εάν θέλ ασφαλώς να τρέχ · ο ελεύθερος πρέπει να βοηθ τον δεσ ώτην ή πρέπει να τον ανακουφίζ . Όσον παρέρχεται ο χρόνος , τόσον το ελεύθερον έθνος καθίσταται οί οι ! ανικανώτερον όπως δώσ χείρα βοηθείας εις το δούλον έθνος . Άγγλος ή Γερ ανός ή Γάλλος δύναται να είναι κοσ οπολίτης ή αναρχικός ή άθεος ή ο,τιδήποτε . Έκα ε το πατριωτικόν χρέος του , έκτισε εγάλην πατρίδα . Τώρα είναι ελεύθερος να επαγγέλλεται , χάριν πολυτελείας , την απιστίαν και την απαισιοδοξίαν . Αλλά Γραικύλος της σή ερον , όστις θέλει να κά δη οσί τον άθεον ή τον κοσ οπολίτην , ο οιάζει ε νάνον ανορθού ενον επ’ άκρων ονύχων και τανυό ενον να φθάσ εις ύψος και φαν και αυτός γίγας . Το ελληνικόν έθνος , το δούλον , αλλ ’ ουδέν ήττον και το ελεύθερον , έχει και θα έχ διά παντός ανάγκην της θρησκείας του . Το επ ’ ε οί , ενόσ ζω και αναπνέω και σωφρονώ , δεν θα παύσω πάντοτε , ιδίως δε κατά τας πανεκλά πρους ταύτας η έρας , να υ νώ ετά λατρείας τον Χριστόν ου , να περιγράφω ετ ’ έρωτος την φύσιν και να ζωγραφώ ετά στοργής τα γνήσια ελληνικά ήθη . Εάν επιλάθω αί σου , Ιερουσαλή , επιλησθείη η δεξιά ου , κολληθείη η γλώσσά ου τ λάρυγγί ου , εάν ου ή σου νησθώ’ [2.515.16-517.6]. Actually, it is his literary protest and advocacy of attitude –more consciousness than identity report. Alexandros Papadiamantis, just like every great artist, confines himself modestly in certain specifications of his idiomorphous ‘asceticism’ in writing. He warns us about the possible inclinations towards an ideological treatment of his work either as ‘religious’ or ‘ethographic’ –both terms would restrict and obscure his understanding of writing. Of course, he shared a profound distaste for preachers and propagandists of mundane greed; with his awakening of the functional sensibility of his unaffected readers and along with his overwhelming lyricism and accurate meditation he sought to stimulate his readers’ critical character. This is a matter of identity, one intertwined with kaleidoscopic literary elements, stylistic classical allusions and veritable Orthodox grains; all things considered, he appears like a modern Pindaric voice which incorporates sentences (γνώ αι ) of wisdom in articles of religious hymns 15 , or like the Greek philosophers who articulated their doctrines with lyric delicacy and sensitiveness 16 . His gnomological passages are not ideological projections. They are rather fundamental elements of his literary creation in victorial-like odes confronting the norms of gravity. They are an active discussion of the multivariated phenomena of being, since he knows how to master his literary sources and inspirations. His trenchant observations under the perspectives of the Greek spiritual tradition in the course of centuries, yet in a sinister seasonality (‘ εν έσ της κοινωνικής και εκκλησιαστικής ελεεινότητος , ήτις πανταχόθεν ας περιβάλλει ’ [2.335.1-3]), look like a necessary evil when correlated to the deadlocks produced by existing political and social corruption, ‘ διά της ψευτικής, του όνου όπλου όπερ απέ εινεν εις τους χωρικούς όπως ανταγωνίζωνται κατά τόσων και τόσων πολιτικών ή κοινωνικών και βιοτικών πιέσεων και διωγ ών, ( όπλον το οποίον ακονίζεται δις της εβδο δος εις τα πταισ ατοδικεία και ειρηνοδικεία, όπου ο χωρικός γ νεται σωστός βλαχοδικηγ ρος)’ [2.418.24-28], as if he was giving, too, ‘την κραυγήν εκείνην του πικρού σαρκασ ού προς την ταλαίπωρον ανθρωπότητα ’ [4.72.2-3] so as to exorcise the inhibitions of fear from his readers: ‘ Θα έλεγέ τις ότι η χολέρα ήτο όνον πρόφασις , και ότι η εκ ετάλλευσις των ανθρώπων ήτο η αλήθεια . Το δαι όνιον του φόβου είχεν εύρει επτά άλλα δαι όνια πονηρότερα εαυτού, και είχε λάβει κατοχήν επί του πνεύ ατος των ανθρώπων ’ [2.572.27-30]. It seems impossible for him to tolerate dabbling in politics with nationalistic effusions, the unscrupulous trading of patriotism, social wretchedness and injustice, voluptuous and plutocratic tensions, the urbanized temptations and the urge to contribute in the ethnographic story-writing in the bustle of Athens. He resists in the tempest of modernization by escaping from morbid social conventions, which are nothing else but a degradation conformed by atheists and Europeanizating ignorants of authentic Greek tradition. As he confesses imagination rather than ethnicity, devout in the model of early Christian communities whereby affection has been the unifying element among their members, Greek national identity within this context has an anti-Western character since the latter favours individualism and social estrangement. When a swarm of -isms invades his homeland, their devastating indolence affects the long-established educational tradition and imposes a menacing compliance on colloquial Greek: e.g. ‘ Η προσηγορ α αφέντη , εις το στό α της χλω ής, ευαισθήτου κόρης , έχανεν όλην την έκφρασιν της υποτελείας , και εγίνετο αβρά και χαρίεσσα , πολύ τρυφερωτέρα από το καθολικώτερον και προκριτώτερον άλλως όνο α , το “πατέρα ”, και ασυγκρίτως εκφραστικωτέρα από το βάρβαρον και ξενίζον “ πα πά ”, το οποίον παρεισήλθεν εσχάτως , ετά πολλών άλλων κηλίδων , εις τα ήθη ας ’ [4.188.27-33]. Papadiamantis cannot abstain from
15 See Stuligrocz 2000. 16 See Demos 1999. social problems or ardent problematics. In his famous realist novel The Murderess (1903) that reflects on the constructions of personhood and the social economy of female bodies, gender forms identity, whereas the notions of gender and identity often collide and give birth to problematization eschewing pre-ordained social practices and structurally engendered roles. The messianic image of Greek women fortifying national viability and the cult of motherhood preserving the ethnic identity fall behind Hadoula, the serial killer of infant girls and the sufferer of many financial difficulties due to her worthless dowry, as if she had been a modern porter and bearer of an immense tradition which she had no presuppositions to realize but those of a death angel. We should not forget that Papadiamantis did not hesitate to encounter anti- Semitic prejudice (in his story ‘ Ο αντίκτυπος του νου’ he asks: ‘Μήπως οι Εβραίοι δεν είνε άνθρωποι ; Ιδού ο άνθρωπος αυτός κλα ει ’ [4.380.3-4]) and social matters like prostitution (‘Το ιδιόκτητο ’17 ), contraception and abortion (‘Τα ιατρεία της Βαβυλώνος ’18 ). In other words, Papadiamantis is in search of our (collective) lost sensitiveness and sensibility, trying to relieve them of fraudulent identities. After all, his fight desinit in theologiam … I cite three more examples of his multilateral scanning of collective identity’s aspects: (a) ‘Αλλά τί θα εχρειάζετο η Θεολογική Σχολή , αν έ ελλε ν’ ασχολήται αποκλειστικώς εις « τετρι ένα » θέ ατα , και να ε πνέεται απολύτως από τα συναξάρια ; Τόσοι σοφοί άνδρες , φωστήρες εκ της Εσπερίας ανατείλαντες , ε τόσον παχείς ισθούς, και να η εταγγίσουν ολίγον αθεϊστικόν πνεύ α εις την Ελλάδα !’ [4.427.22-26]. (b) ‘Προ των σή ερον υλιστών, δαρβινιστών και θετικιστών υπήρξαν οι απαισιόδοξοι , οι ορθολογισταί και οι κριτικισταί· αλλά παρήλθον· προ αυτών ήσαν οι πανθεϊσταί , αλλά εξέλιπον . Παρέρχονται , κρύπτονται εν τ σκι , αφανίζονται , αφού επί βραχύ τέρψωσι τους φιλοκαίνους και τους φιλαναγνώστας διά περιέργου συναυλίας λέξεων και γνω ών. Ο δε Χριστιανισ ός έ εινε και θα έν ’ [5.300.19-24]. (c) ‘ Είς οιωνός άριστος . Αλλά τίς έβαλεν εις πράξιν την συ βουλήν του θειοτάτου αρχαίου ποιητού; Εκ της παρούσης η ών γενεάς τίς η ύνθη περί πάτρης ; Η ύνθησαν περί πάτρης οι άστοργοι πολιτικοί , οι εκ περιτροπής ητρυιοί του ταλαιπώρου ωρφανισ ένου Γένους , του “στειρεύοντος πριν και ητεκνω ένου δεινώς σή ερον ”; Ά υνα περί πάτρης δεν είναι αι σπασ ωδικαί , κακο ελέτητοι και κακοσύντακτοι επιστρατείαι , ουδέ τα σκωριασ ένης επιδεικτικότητος θωρηκτά . Ά υνα περί πάτρης θα ήτο η ευσυνείδητος λειτουργία των θεσ ών, η εθνική αγωγή , η χρηστή διοίκησις , η καταπολέ ησις του ξένου υλισ ού και του πιθηκισ ού, του διαφθείραντος το φρόνη α και εκφυλίσαντος σή ερον το έθνος , και η πρόληψις της χρεοκοπίας . Τίς η ύνθη περί πάτρης ; Και τί πταίει η γλαυξ, η θρηνούσα επί ερειπίων ; Πταίουν οι πλάσαντες τα ερείπια . Και τα ερείπια τα έπλασαν οι ανίκανοι κυβερνήται της Ελλάδος ’ [5.253.21-254.9]. The misinterpretations or, eventually, misapprehensions of Papadiamantis’ fiction applied on ideological exploitation followed that of his lyricism. As abovementioned, he was accused of expressing a naïve form of lyricism though grounded in the authenticity of experience, as getting lost in the transition from ancient paganism and historical Greek ethnicity to contemporary cosmopolitanism and confessional literature, i.e. in a strange way of applying ‘situatedness’19 as an important motif. Although they are an assertion of self, instilled in his stories whatever the connection to the lived life, lyric images could project the sense that identity is continuous but also highly precarious, since lyric impulse also projects
17 4.569-572. 18 4.605-608. 19 On the term see Simpson 2001: 195. alternative senses of identity to different, sometimes overlapping readerships. Here we may emphasize on a crucial point of his lyric identity. His writing does not originate in the ‘you’ of interpellation but in the “I” of recollection. Another way to genuine relationships is the return to Greek nature mirroring divine eros . Therefore, ancient Amadryads can stand by Christ: in his story Στην Αγι -Αναστασά he visualizes ‘ εν σ γιγαντια ων δρυών [...] ε σκιάς και σκοτεινά κενά εν έσ των κλάδων , όπου εφαντάζετό τις ελλοχε οντα αόρατα πνεύ ατα , υπάρξαντα πάλαι ποτέ, ρυάδες εύσω οι και Ορεστιάδες ραδιναί, ελευθ ρως ανάσσουσαι ανά τους πυκνούς δρυ ώνας ’ [2.350.22-23, 25-28], who, although they were giving way in front of the light of the torches of Easter, they started to watch amazed ‘την αναζωπύρησιν των πασχαλ ων πυρσών και οσφραινό εναι την οσ ήν του χριστιανικού οσχολιβάνου εις τα βάθη του δρυ ώνος ’ [2.350.32-34]. It is also important for Papadiamantis’ literary attitude and cultural conception to interrelate once more his alleged latent paganism/syncretism with historical understanding, e.g. if in The Gypsy Girl we should explore how Aïma’s orphanhood and mysterious ancestry, and Plethon’s polytheism and ardent nationalism become allegorical representations of the intra- Greek past, struggling between ancient romantic revival, Western dominion love, and Orthodox resistance 20 . ‘If syncretism in Greece became an entrenched national discourse in the nineteenth century 21 , Papadiamantis’s narratives critically engage with it’ 22 . It has been supported that through Papadiamantis’ textualization parva religio was revived; that a flirtation with paganism through the medium of a diachronic Greek idiom that is not merely ornamental reinforced the sancity of place and pagan survivals 23 . Undoubtedly, Papadiamantis integrated the world of ancient myth into his portrayal of contemporary reality, but I do not regard this aspect of literature irrelevant to notions of identity. I will persist in the apprehension of lyricism as memory even concerning cultural identity and lyric representations. Dire reality and struggle for living tortured Papadiamantis and turned him to the shrines of his childhood, engaging the subordination of time (character in action) to place (setting) as Peter Mackridge remarked; Papadiamantis’ Skiathos is transcribed by him in memory, which ‘ignores temporal connections and prefers metonymic associations’ 24 . R. Terdiman suggests that memory is essential to human functioning as a source of many social conflicts. In his book he examined a series of texts by Freud, Proust, Baudelaire, and Musset that give voice to the theme of memory, which was institutionalized as a discipline that decisively shaped an influential tradition in European culture 25 . In a similar application to Papadiamantis’ case, memory functions as an identity trope, for no other art or science of antiquity has been legitimized through such a detailed legend of its origin as that of the ars memoriae reflecting the various ways in which collective life has been organized. Since the epic tradition –to which Papadiamantis’ expressive power could also be ascribed– narration has always been a form of memorizing and recording 26 . Terdiman
20 See Ricks & Magdalino 1998 on Byzantium and modern Greek identity (esp. the modern state usurping or consenting to the nation’s ‘genuine’ heritage). 21 See Stewart 1994. 22 Shannan Peckham 1998: 95. 23 See Ricks 1992. 24 Mackridge 1992: 165. 25 Terdiman 1993. 26 Nalbantian 2004 is the first book (a comparative study of writers from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Faulkner and others) to discover memory phenomena captured in literary works. Mudford 1996 discusses the ways twelve novellas (from English, French, German and Russian writers) represent is right to stress that the memory of the text is formed by the intertextuality of its references and that the mnemonic space which new texts will traverse, is enriched in the same way. Either in visualized or abstracted form, one of the largest complications of memorializing our past is the inevitable fact that it is absent or endangered. Every memory we try to reproduce becomes –as Terdiman states 27 – a ‘present past’. Papadiamantis’ ecphrasis could be arising out of this impractical desire for recalling what is gone by that brings to surface a feeling of nostalgia, noticeable in many aspects of daily life but most specifically in cultural products by inferring the illusions of a momentary returning to a lost past Paradise. Papadiamantis orientated himself towards the primordials of his own people, a ‘nation’ possessing and witnessing an immemorial tradition, many centuries before the cracks caused upon it in its mutation in an urbanized estate 28 . This estate of nostalgia reached by his own sight inclined to a Skiathitic vision of existence reminds me of the ecstatic gaze of a child; that identity of innocence towards creation is the sublimation of his fiction. Ecphrasis forms his own identity key to the structure 29 . Furthermore, on literary description Mackridge quotes from Philippe Hamon, who has pointed out that description is a site for displaying rhetorical virtuosity, where the ‘generative power of language’ shows itself to be at its obvious and uncontrolled 30 , and this rhetorical virtuosity goes together with a display of taxonomic competence, encyclopedic erudition 31 and textual knowledge 32 . In Papadiamantis’ case it is tempting to seek in these last factors his references to ancient Greek literature and myth. He shares his view of the world in the dazzling and variegated images conceived in the ancient theory of literature: he borrows the expressive language of ecphrasis and its effusion to express the invisible and articulate his sense of it 33 . We know that the defining quality of ecphrasis is the situation of an eyewitness, making the readers share the viewer’s experience, involving the listeners imaginatively and emotionally in the events at issue. ‘In epideictic contexts, the effects of ecphrasis could be particularly subtle, involving an interaction between the audience’s knowledge of an actual sight and the verbally induced mental image’ 34 . Papadiamantis’ descriptio is his literary identity confined to his own idiosyncratic conception of worship and faith. G. Farinou-Malamatari has studied in her dissertation the techniques of narration (and description as well) in Papadiamantis’ fiction and has arrived to useful conclusions about the ways his descriptive mind transforms locus amoenus into actions of nostalgic viewing 35 . By means of construction through adjectives, details, metaphors and other figures of speech he upgrades conventional images and he embraces the grammar of common vision to heights of inexpectable cohesions among beings. He inspires his text as literary dwelling with intertextual, classical mainly, allusions and latent quotations, and memories of passion and sexual obsession. Lachmann 2005 discusses in depth cultural memory and the role of literature. 27 Terdiman 1993: 3-32. 28 See also King 2000 on memory, narrative and images of identity that memory can create. 29 At present I am preparing a major treatise on Papadiamantis’ ecphrasis, deriving from ancient literary theory. 30 Hamon 1981: 30. 31 Hamon 1981: 54. 32 Hamon 1981: 119. 33 On Papadiamantis’ ecphrasis for church art see Triantaphyllopoulos 1996 and 2002; also Farinou- Malamatari 2000: 110. 34 Webb 2009: 193. 35 See Farinou-Malamatari 2000: 105-167. simultaneously he removes himself from certain naturalistic topics which could be easily judged as primordial and profane remnants. Consequently, his ecphrasis entails not a pagan manifestation but a rhetoric approbation of adjunctions between ancient words and natural deeds under oblivion on the one hand and modern longing experienced through demotic forms on the other. At the same time, his ecphrasis overruns post-Byzantine rhetoric models in that he expresses emotional distraction caused by facing universe in the bosom of Church; art and adoration enter into faith via his linguistic masterpiece of Longinian inspiration. The arrangement of Papadiamantis’ text to a number of micro-narrative strategies is strongly constructed on a language acculturating its speaker into a hectic nationhood that endeavours to orchestrate Greek collective memory and fabulous traditions from antiquity 36 . ‘In some of Papadiamantis’ finest and moving stories too, the narrator relates his experiences as a child in a confusing and hostile world, and their effects on his adult self. Again the adult narrator uses katharévousa , albeit subtly infiltrated and infused with features of the spoken language as well as pre-Christian and ecclesiastical texts, while the child speaks in the vernacular, although the discrepancy in never referred to explicitly. In some stories Papadiamntis even uses local dialect in the dialogue; such texts thus display three different linguistic varieties: katharévousa , common demotic, and dialect. Papadiamantis’ Orthodox Christian piety –and his respect for that of his characters– led him to use numerous words and phrases from religious texts, namely the Septuagint and the New Testament, and liturgical texts dating from the early Byzantine period. His unique brand of katharévousa , which in its morphology differed little from liturgical Greek, is perhaps an indication of his insistence on the timeless continuity of traditional Greek culture and his resistance to certain aspects of modernity’37 . Since language is a prime consideration of life itself and Papadiamantis wanted to eschew the alienation of experience of identity, he expressed his lyric confession of it by cherishing the vivid tradition of Mount Athos and by incorporating in morphological, typological and syntactical features the previous generations of literary devoutness: an almost ‘Homeric’ katharévousa (with several meaningful allusions to the classics and the Homeric models to which it may aspire), hieratic, biblical and, above all, anagogical, which would express perfectly every nostalgic whispering of lyric feelings 38 . Then, he could also address antiquity as a heir: ‘ Από των νεωτέρων Αθηνών , πόλεως αναγεννηθείσης διά του κηρύγ ατος του ουρανοβά ονος Παύλου , πέ πο εν υστηριώδη ασπασ όν εις τας υπωρείας και τας φάραγγας του εγαλοπρεπούς Άθω , ε τας δροσεράς κρήνας , ε τας χιλιετείς κυπαρίσσους , ε τα αιώνια δάση των καστανεών, ε τους ινυρισ ούς των απειραρίθ ων αηδόνων , όπου Έλλην ψάλτης , ο Κουκουζέλης , δων εκίνει τας αίγας και τους άρνας , ως ο υθολογού ενος Ορφεύς, όπου η σκέπη της Παναγίας επισκιάζει ως άλλοτε εν τ βασιλευούσ των πόλεων , όπου ζ και θάλλει η ιερά παράδοσις του εσαιωνικού Ελληνισ ού, και όπου έχει την κοιτίδα ία υψηλή ποίησις , η ποίησις η χριστιανική, ήτις δεν έπαυσε ποτέ να ε πνέ και να παρηγορ τους θιασώτας α τ ς, ν τ νθρωπίν βί ’ [5.158.6-16]. In this short extract of ecphrasis he did not only declare his admiration for the style of hymnography but he also warned us that his language had to override any mundane barrier, in order to testify verbal conducts from another sphere: ‘Μικρολόγος
36 See Livanios 2008 on the conflict between Hellenes and Romans under a common liguistic roof, still retaining pagan connotations. 37 Mackridge 2009: 206-207. 38 See Kalospyros 2007. σχολαστικότης αδυνατεί να αισθανθ και να εκτι ήσ την παιδικήν και αγγελικήν απλότητα των θείων ρη άτων , την αγνοούσαν το κακόν, ή την περιφρονούσαν τούτο . Άλλως το εγαλείον της ποιήσεως της ανατολικής είναι άλλο , και οι τρόποι , αι εταφοραί και εικόνες της γλώσσης των Ιερών Γραφών δεν θα γίνωσι ποτέ νεωτερικαί ούτε δυτικαί” [5.220. 9-14]. Again his linguistic conception means more of an identity. With a language that knows no simple opposition between archaism and innovation, since the innovative tendencies extend mainly to the manipulation of archaisms for literary effect, as a modus loquendi he could form a suggestive symbolism to integrate mutually the world of ancient myth into his portrayal of contemporary reality. He had overriden every suspicion of diglossia even in identity matters 39 and, accordingly, refuted the trash doctrines from alien winds: ‘ εν έπαυσαν τ’ άχυρα και τα σκύβαλα του πολιτισ ού να ας έρχωνται διαρκώς ε την πνοήν των ανέ ων . Όλοι οι αργέσται και οι ζέφυροι και οι ιάπυγες ας φέρουν τ’ απορρί ατα , τα καθάρ ατα των δογ άτων και των θεωριών, των εθόδων και των τρόπων , των ηθών και των έξεων , από την Εσπερίαν ’ [5.290.6-10], as ‘έν ζωντανόν σώ α δεν δύναται να ζήσ δι ’ ενέσεων , τρόπον τινά, από κόνιν αρχαίων σκελετών και νη είων , άλλο τόσον δεν δύναται να ζήσ , ει ή όνον κακήν και νοσηράν ζωήν, τρεφό ενον ε τουρσιά και ε κονσέρβας ευρωπαϊκάς’ [5.296.10-12]. Unless his language is considered as his identity and destiny, each attempt to define Papadiamantis’ identity is bound to be dilemmatic and ineffective.
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