This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The Modern Greek Literary Tradition in the Major Novels of Nikos Kazantzakis Kokkinidi, Evangelia Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 Evangelia Kokkinidi The Modern Greek Literary Tradition in the Major Novels of Nikos Kazantzakis PhD in Modern Greek Studies (Literature) Department of Classics King‟s College London University of London 2015 1 Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………………………………… 3 Introduction …………………………..…………………………………………… 4 1. Kazantzakis as a reader of Modern Greek literature …………………………… 29 2. The integration of the folk and literary tradition in The Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas …..………………………………………………………………. 77 3. Intertextuality as recurrence: Christ Recrucified ……………………………… 115 4. Quotations and narrative allusions in O Kapetan Michalis ……………………. 137 5. Tradition and innovation: The Last Temptation ………………………...……… 181 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………. 225 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………… 234 2 Abstract This doctoral thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the novels of Kazantzakis‟ maturity in relation to Modern Greek literature. The extent of Kazantzakis‟ reading is explored as well as the views that he expressed in letters, essays and interviews on texts from the epic of Γηγελήο Αθξίηεο up to works of the Generation of the Thirties. When Kazantzakis wrote his major novels, he had a wide knowledge of the Modern Greek literary tradition and contemporary literature. The fruits of his engagement with Modern Greek literature are found in his own literary production. The novels that are studied are Βίνο θαη Πνιηηεία ηνπ Αιέμε Ενξκπά, Ο Υξηζηόο Ξαλαζηαπξώλεηαη, Ο Καπεηάλ Μηράιεο (Διεπηεξία ή Θάλαηνο) and Ο Σειεπηαίνο Πεηξαζκόο. The analysis detects the intertextual markers and illustrates the methods that are employed linking the novels‟ characters, themes, settings and stories with previous Modern Greek texts. A wide range of literary works is evoked or organically incorporated into the plot of the novels: folk poetry of the Akritic cycle, Cretan folk songs, the literature of the Cretan Renaissance, the poetry of Solomos, Palamas and Sikelianos, the ethographic novellas and short stories of Kondylakis and Vizyinos, fiction by Myrivilis, Prevelakis and Kosmas Politis. Kazantzakis‟ novels hold a pivotal place in the history of Modern Greek literature and, as this thesis proposes, it is also the Modern Greek literary tradition that constitutes an essential component of his fiction. 3 Introduction The exploration of the connection of Nikos Kazantzakis‟ major novels with the Modern Greek literary tradition is the subject matter of the current doctoral thesis. The extent of the author‟s engagement with Modern Greek literature is examined as well as the intertextual relationship of his major novels with Modern Greek literature from the folk poetry of the Akritic cycle and the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century up to the literature of the 1940s. The markers that indicate the linking of the novels with preceding texts of Modern Greek literature are investigated as well as the authors, periods and works with which the novels are connected attempting to interpret the function of their association. The chief research questions that this thesis addresses and to which it attempts to respond are the following: what was the extent of the engagement and knowledge of Kazantzakis as a reader of Modern Greek literature? What critical comments did he express with regard to works of the Modern Greek literary tradition and which criteria did he apply for their assessment? How are Kazantzakis‟ major novels connected with previous Modern Greek texts? With which texts, authors and periods of the Modern Greek literary tradition are the novels linked and how does the recognition of the intertextual relationship with the anterior literature sheds fresh light upon Kazantzakis‟ work? The methodology that has been employed in order to examine the above research questions is first an exploration of Kazantzakis‟ reading and extra-textual comments about Modern Greek literary texts. An overview of his reading and critical comments is offered in order to shed light on the extent of his familiarity with it. For 4 the analysis of Kazantzakis‟ engagement with Modern Greek literature as a reader and the examination of his critical views about it material is gleaned from Kazantzakis‟ essays, interviews, and letters from 1902 until the 1950s, some of which are currently unpublished or less known. They derive from the research I conducted at the archive of the author at Kazantzakis Museum, his library at the Historical Museum of Crete as well as Prevelakis archive at the library of the University of Crete. Then, the intertextual connection of the novels with previous texts is analysed. The major novels that are studied in the thesis are: Βίνο θαη Πνιηηεία ηνπ Αιέμε Ενξκπά, Ο Υξηζηόο Ξαλαζηαπξώλεηαη, Ο Καπεηάλ Μηράιεο, and Ο Σειεπηαίνο Πεηξαζκόο. Kazantzakis commenced and completed his literary career as a novelist. In the meantime, he produced works that belong to a wide variety of genres: poetry, philosophy, essays, plays, travel literature, and translations. He was critically acclaimed at an international level after writing the novel Βίνο θαη Πνιηηεία ηνπ Αιέμε Ενξκπά between 1941 and 1943 which marked the beginning of the mature phase of his literary production. Ο Υξηζηόο Ξαλαζηαπξώλεηαη, Ο Καπεηάλ Μηράιεο, and Ο Σειεπηαίνο Πεηξαζκόο were the major novels that followed. These novels are chosen to be studied on the grounds that they were produced after Kazantzakis had acquired a wide knowledge of the Modern Greek literary tradition and contemporary literature as a reader of it. Furthermore, the period when he wrote his major novels succeeded and coincided with the breakthrough that Modern Greek literature saw after the appearance and establishment of the writers that belong to the Generation of the Thirties. The analysis focuses on the markers that signalise the intertexts and indicate their manifold linking with previous texts. It explores the ways of their interconnection on the level of structure and content in terms of the topics, characters, 5 their words and actions, places and times. The development of a single episode or character in the unfolding of the plot may be characterised by a merging of intertexts. Moreover, the intertextual relationships are detected in structural positions of the novels from the beginning, the middle and the end. Close readings of the novels in parallel with anterior Modern Greek texts are presented so as to elucidate the ways and techniques of their connection. Interpretations of the effect of the intertextual linking are also presented aiming to examine how the novels acquire fresh meaning when the intertext is detected. Terms that are included in this thesis and require elucidation will at this point be explicated. The term intertextuality concerns the novels‟ interrelation to previous texts. Intertext is perceived as the anterior text with which the novel is connected and it may have an overt or covert presence in the novel. The intertextual connection is activated through markers that may make the association apparent or obscure. Ziva Ben-Porat in the article “The poetics of allusion” defines literary allusion as “a device for the simultaneous activation of two texts. The activation is achieved through the manipulation of a special signal: a sign (simple or complex) in a given text characterized by an additional larger “referent”. This referent is always an independent text. The simultaneous activation of the two texts thus connected results in the formation of intertextual patterns whose nature cannot be predetermined”.1 The marker activates elements from the evoked text. It should also be noted that the intertext may differ from the version of a theme. Intertextuality exists when two texts correspond to each other whether they share a common theme or not. An important factor that differentiates the intertext from the version of a theme is the presence or the absence of a key-word. In the case when there is a correspondent there is also 1 Ben-Porat 1976: 107-108. 6 material present from the previous text and also components that have been substituted in the text.2 This remains praesens in absentia and therefore an important component of the text is to be found outside of its margins. The term quotation is perceived as the reproduction of textual material from a previous work in the novels. It has an explicit character and it is manifested through the use of quotation marks or italics. It may occur with or without specific references to the work from which it derives. Reference concerns the cases when a literary work‟s title or the author‟s name are specifically mentioned. Allusion also pertains to the reproduction of material from a preceding text but it is more elusive in comparison to the quotation.