Summary:
Vyron Leondaris (1932-2014) was not a neutral observer of Greek letters. He established –along with Gerassimos Lykiardopoulos (1936-), Marios Markidis (1940-2003), Manolis Lambridis (Leondaris’ brother; 1920-2002) and Stefanos Rozanis (1942)– the political and literary magazine Simeioseis [=Σημειώσεις] (1973/1974), which plays a great role in ideological and cultural criticism in post-war and post-dictatorial Greece. Starting from pure Marxist thought and standpoints up to a utopian-communism-in-disguise, the people of Simeioseis were pioneers in criticism, introducing Critical theory in the Greek theoretical arena. This master’s thesis studies the poetic work of Leondaris, trying to acknowledge and underline its position in the horizon of the so-called post-war condition, while at the same time our main desideratum is to point out the elegiac mode, which plays a great role in Leondaris’ poetic and essayistic worldview. Apart from that, we try to establish a platform of dialogue between the European and the Modern Greek poetic scene of the post-war era, in order to understand in a better and deeper way the cultural and ideological exchange between the intellectuals during an era of impotence, change and destruction.
Keywords:
Leondaris, post-war, elegiac mode, modality, modern greek literature
