Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Νεοελληνική ΦιλολογίαLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Author:
Tzavaras-Tsipianitis Konstantinos
Supervisors info:
Δημήτρης Αγγελάτος, Καθηγητής Νεοελληνικής Φιλολογίας και Θεωρίας της Λογοτεχνίας, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Τομέας Νεοελληνικής Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ.
Θανάσης Αγάθος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής Νεοελληνικής Φιλολογίας, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Τομέας Νεοελληνικής Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ.
Πέγκυ Καρπούζου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Θεωρίας Λογοτεχνίας, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Τομέας Νεοελληνικής Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ.
Original Title:
Η λειτουργία του προσωπικού λόγου, στο πρώιμο πεζογραφικό έργο του Θέμου Κορνάρου (1929-1945)
Translated title:
The function of personal narrative discourse in the early literary work of Themos Kornaros (1929-1945)
Summary:
The subject of this dissertation thesis is the investigation of the function of personal discourse in the early prose work (1929-1945) of Themos Kornaros (1906-1970) and specifically the works "Eros or Anesthesia?" (1929), "Mount Athos - The Saints without Mask" (1933), "Spinalonga - Ad Vitam" (1933), "The Tramp" (1935), and "The Camp of Haidario" (1945). Kornaros belonged to a minor group of leftist prose writers of the 1930s generation, who had gathered in the circles of the magazine "Neoi Protoporoi" and his personal narrative discourse is expressed in the various transformations of genres in these works, as it is realized in the form of testimony, reportage, diary and self-narration. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter will present the theoretical framework of the pivotal, in the context of Marxist criticism, debate between Bertolt Brecht and George Lukacs on the question of literary realism, in order to show how Kornaros' narrative technique aligns with, Brecht's conception of socialist realism, as articulated in the essay "Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth", before exposing certain concepts of Genette's narratology that are necessary for the analysis. The second chapter attempts to interpret Themos Kornaros' literary work as a “polemical literary battlefield”, whose political dimension does not only lie in the description of social injustice, but much more in a deeper “Brechtian” look at social contradictions that wants to provoke social change. Finally, the third chapter examines the critical reception of his work by contemporary left-wing criticism and attempts to show how their one-sided focus on the proper application of the criteria of socialist realism led in some cases to the rejection of the pioneering narrative elements of his literary works. Furthermore, an additional purpose of the thesis is to explore the extent to which Kornaros' idiosyncratic writing style, dominated by the form of personal narrative discourse, contributed to the subsequent success of his work, which has seen many re-publications up to the present day, and indeed had a significant impact on political and social life, as evidenced by the bans it suffered, not to mention the persecution of the author himself for his political activity.
Main subject category:
Language – Literature
Keywords:
Themos Kornaros, Bertolt Brecht, Gennete, Literature, Narratology, Narrative techniques, personal narrative discourse, realism, form-content, modernism, Left, Marxist aesthetics, critique, Interwar period
Number of references:
141
