Modern Greek prose : the generation of the ’30s : an attempt for a definitive evaluation

Abstract

The last quarter of the XIXth century and the first of the XXth constitute the period of ’genre’ writing in modern Greek prose.In Greece, where urban centres were at this time almost non-existent, the structure of family strictly patriarchal and the economy purely agricultural, a simple, traditional, picturesque way of life still went on. The various writers of the period attempted to convey this way of life; among them stand out G. Vizyinós, A. Papadiamandis and A. Karkavitsas at the end of the XIXth century and K. Chadzópoulos, K. Theotokis and G. Xenopoulos at the beginning of the XXth. To a simple, flat representation of Greek life Vizyinós adds by his pioneering work, a third dimension, the depth of the human soul. Of the descendants of 'genre’-writing mentioned, Chadzópoulos and Theotokis show a marked interest in the social transformation of Greek society; especially Theotokis who presents in his work the decline of the Corfiot aristocracy and the economic rise of the popular classes. However, the general picture of Greek literature at this period is one of poverty: poverty in important works and in ideological questioning. Then, 1922 represents the turning point of modern Greek prose. There slowly appears a pleiad of young and gifted writers who attempt to give a composite picture of modern Greek life, as it took shape after the Asia Minor disaster: S. Myrivilis, E. Venezis, F. Kóndoglou, S. Doukas, G. Theotokas, K. Politis, I.M. Panayotópoulos, P. Prevelakis, A. Terzakis, M. Karagatsis, G. Abbot, Th. Petsalis and others. This is the «generation of the ’30s». The term «generation of the ’30s» is certainly conventional. There is no question of a school with a definite ideology and aesthetic principles. Each writer is an autonomous unit, preserving
his own personality and expressing his own particular world. The common meeting-point of all the writers of this generation is the moment of their appearance in modern Greek letters and a feeling of historical responsibility. ’Ελεύθερο Πνεύμα [Free Spiritj, the little book published under a pen-name by George Theotokas in 1929 very quickly came to be regarded as the 'manifesto’ of the generation of the ’30s. Of the above-mentioned twelve most important representatives of this generation the first six are Asia Minor refugees. One must therefore stress the great contribution of the refugee writers, poets and prose authors, towards the change of climate in Greek intellectual life which
occurred steadily and rapidly from 1922 onwards. It should be noted that
the poet Seferis was also from Asia Minor. Myrivilis gave Greek prose three highly important works (Life in a Grave, The Mistress with the Golden Eyes, The Mermaid-Madona). His masterpiece, however, is the novella Vasilis Arvanitis, which reveals all Myrivilis’ power as a prose writer. Myrivilis was a great master in his working of language. Venezis also produced some important works on
the idyllic life in the Anatolia before the disaster, on the extermination
by the Turks of the Greek male population of Asia Minor in the so-called
«labour camps», and on the tragedy of the refugees who regrouped their powers to put down roots in new ground. A shocking witness to the Asia Minor disaster and to refugeeism is S. Doukas’ chronicle Story of a Captive. The work of F. Kóntoglou, which comes from out of the solid world of the Greek Orthodox East, unaffected by the mal du siècle, is utterly individual, but on that very account very important and interesting. From the work of Theotokas, the value of his essays particularly stands out. As for K. Politis, with the passing of time his work is better and more correctly appreciated as it is judjed in the correct temporal perspective and compared with the work of his contemporaries. In particular his book At Chadzifranges', a novel of adolescence through which there passes in a bright panorama all the noisy, motley life of Smyrna in 1900,
is a masterpiece. This work is the memorial to the lost hellenism of Asia Minor.