[MGSA-L] Princeton Hellenic Studies Workshop: February 15, 2013

[Dimitri H. Gondicas]

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

Workshop

Debating Hellenism in C.P. Cavafy's
"Going Back Home from Greece" and "Philhellene"

  Evgenia Sifaki
  esifaki at princeton.edu<mailto:esifaki at princeton.edu>
  University of Thessaly
  Stanley J. Seeger Visiting Research Fellow, Hellenic Studies

Respondent: Alexander Nehamas, Philosophy and Comparative Literature

Cavafy's dramatic monologues "Going Back Home from Greece" and "Philhellene" will be approached by way of their form: the genre of the dramatic monologue that the Greek poet adopted and adapted from Victorian sources. More specifically, this essay investigates how features of the genre (such as its use of a speaker who is distinguished from the poet, the historical and dramatic framing of the poetic utterance, its management of two and more different voices performing at the same time within the same utterance) engender and enable multiple debates regarding the meanings, ramifications and complications of Hellenism. It will be argued that the two speakers' construction of identity is represented as a complex process of subjection and simultaneous resistance to oppressive definitions inherent to the discourse of Hellenism, particularly the latter's self-constitutive division between Greek and barbarian.

Evgenia Sifaki studied English Literature and Culture at the Universities of Thessaloniki and King's College London. She teaches Literary Theory and Criticism at the University of Thessaly (Department of Education). Her research interests include Romantic, Victorian and early twentieth-century literature, poetry and travel writing. She has contributed several essays to collective volumes, as well as academic journals such as Synchrona Themata (Athens) Gramma (Thessaloniki), Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge), Études Irlandaises (Paris) and the European Journal of English Studies (London). Her most recent research project involves a comparative study of the dramatic monologue in Victorian poets (mainly R. Browning and A. Tennyson) and C. P. Cavafy.
Friday, February 15, 2013
1:30 p.m.
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103

The HELLENIC STUDIES WORKSHOP provides an opportunity for post-doctoral fellows, visiting fellows, and graduate students to present their work-in-progress or recently published research. The aim is to encourage exchange of ideas across disciplines among Classical scholars, Byzantinists, and Modern Greek Studies specialists.

DATES:  Most Fridays, 1:30-3:30 p.m., during the term. Dates, speakers and titles will be announced in advance via e-mail.

PLACE:  Room 103, Scheide Caldwell House, Princeton University

For further information about current events in Hellenic Studies, please refer to the calendar posted on our website: http://www.princeton.edu/~hellenic/


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