Unit:
Department of PhilologyLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Dissertation committee:
Ερασμία-Λουίζα Σταυροπούλου, ομότιμη καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Δημήτριος Αγγελάτος, καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Μαρία Ρώτα, επίκουρη καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Χριστίνα Ντουνιά, καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Αθανάσιος Αγάθος, επίκουρος καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠA
Λητώ Ιωακειμίδου, επίκουρη καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Ιωάννης Ξούριας, επίκουρος καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Το μεταπολεμικό αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα: από την παραλογοτεχνία στην καθιέρωση της μεταπολίτευσης
Translated title:
Post-war crime novel:from paraliterature to the recognition in the metapolitefsi period
Summary:
The Crime Fiction genre has been particularly popular in Greece during the 20th century until the 1950s. Crime literature was published in magazines or in newspapers of wide circulation in serials. As a general rule the Greek Crime Fiction at the time adopted forms that had been developed earlier abroad, with the Greek authors producing mainly translations, adaptations or imitations of foreign works. In terms of content, even when the heroes were hellenized the crime itself still related to foreign places and life conditions.
Since the 1950s, Crime Fiction has acquired a distinct Greek character, mainly due to the literary talent of Υannis Maris (and secondarily of other authors such as A. Kakouri, N. Marakis, Andr. Markakis). The Greek Crime Fiction model, with stories set in the Greek society, was mainly developed through the numerous Maris’ novels. But despite the wide popularity it enjoyed among the mass audience, literary critics classified Crime Fiction as paraliterature and the genre was held in disrepute by the literary circles.
After a period of avoiding everything related to the «police milieu» during the first years of the Metapolitefsi (the period after the fall of the military junta of 1967-74) for reasons which do not require explanation, the Greek Crime Νovel reappears in the 1980s and -much more strongly- during the 1990s with new authors such as P. Markaris, P. Marinidis, Andr. Apostolidis, F. Filippou, T. Danelli, M. Politopoulou etc. and gradually shapes new characteristics.
The focus of the present dissertation is on the works and authors of Crime Fiction literature of the time period starting in the symbolic year 1974 of the Metapolitefsi and ending in 2004 (a milestone year connected with the Athens Olympics, which marked a rise in aspirations for the future in the greek society). It covers a 30 year period after the restoration of democracy, a time period long enough for the new conditions of political and intellectual life to be shaped and crystallized.
During this period the New Greek Crime Νovel is forged through a process of evolution and change that takes place slowly transforming the weak and loose relationship of the earlier, paraliterary Crime Fiction with the social reality into a polyprismatic search for the culprit in the Crime Νovel of the Metapolitefsi.
The research questions posed here are:
- How does the Crime Νovel assimilate the stimuli of the socio-political environment and how does it render them in the narrative by means of place, time and characters (perpetrator, victim, detective).
- -Which narrative-aesthetic features does the Crime Novel acquire in the process of its gradual divergence from paraliterature.
The dissertation studies and demonstrates how the earlier paraliterary Crime Novel is transformed into a recognized literary genre during the Metapoltefsi period, in parallel with a profound change of the Greek society which the Crime Novel creatively assimilated developing not only a more elaborate structure but a new writing quality as well.
Main subject category:
Language – Literature
Keywords:
Greek Crime Νovel, paraliterature, Post-war novel, Metapolitefsi
Number of references:
410
