[MGSA-L] TWO DAYS WITH GONDA VAN STEEN AT HARVARD: OCTOBER 28-29 , 2014

[Rapti, Vassiliki]

Dear All,

I would like to draw your attention to the following two-day event with Gonda Van Steen, The Cassas Chair in Greek Studies at the University of Florida, hosted by the Program of Modern Greek Studies, Department of The Classics, Harvard University on October 28-29, 2014:



                                              Tue., Oct. 28, 2014, 12 – 2 p.m.
                                                   Room 408, 2 Arrow St.

                       Cavafy the Dramatist: A Workshop on Cavafy and Theater

Together with the students, we will analyze the role of theater, performance, acting, and stage directing in some of the poems of Cavafy. Cavafy claimed that he would never be able to write theater ... but it turns out he very effectively used theater references and stage techniques in some of his best known poems.
The workshop will be led in Greek, and is addressed at no cost to students of Modern Greek at Harvard.


                                          http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/?s=gonda

                                               --------------------------------------


                                            Wed., Oct. 29, 2014, 12 – 2:30 p.m.

                                                           Pound Hall_200


Aris Alexandrou’s "Antigone" (1951): A Critique of the 'Blank Pages on which the Revolution 
                                                    Writes its Instructions'


This paper focuses on some of the Brechtian themes of Aris Alexandrou’s "Antigone" and on the Greek author’s capacity for self-critique: the author wrote an apparent review of his one and only play into the Civil War novel that brought him literary fame, "To Kivotio:, or "The Mission Box" (1974). Both Alexandrou’s self-critique and the Brechtian foci of his "Antigone" illuminate the role of the committed play and, more broadly, deliver a speculative proposition on the role of the engaged writer vis-à-vis the dominant Greek political camps. The artist self-reflection set an inspiring example in the aftermath of the Civil War through the Greek dictatorship of 1967-1974 and leaves a legacy of cultural criticism that has been ignored for too long. Alexandrou was well ahead of his time with his characteristic ideological reservations and constructive revisionism, which repeatedly worked to his own detriment.


                                         http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/?s=gonda




Sincerely yours,
Vassiliki Rapti

Vassiliki Rapti, Ph.D.
Preceptor in Modern Greek
204 Boylston Hall
Department of The Classics,
Harvard University
Phone Number: (617) 384-7794
Email: rapti at fas.harvard.edu