[MGSA-L] Sophia Nikolaidou - In Toronto this weekend

[June Samaras]

Bookshelf: Reflections on "Scapegoating"

Posted: 30 Oct 2015 02:04 AM PDT


http://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/2015/10/bookshelf-reflections-on-scapegoating.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreekNewsAgenda+%28GREEK+NEWS+AGENDA%29

Greek renowned author Sophia Nikolaidou’s novel, The Scapegoat (New York,
2015, Translated by Karen Emmerich) takes place during two key periods of
recent Greek history: the Civil War in the late 1940s and the current
financial crisis.

In the midst of the civil war, an American journalist for CBS, George Polk
—journalism’s prestigious George Polk Awards were named after him—, was
investigating atrocities on both sides and killed in circumstances that
remain unexplained to this day. The police quickly found a scapegoat, a
local reporter named Grigoris Staktopoulos, tortured him until he confessed
and sentenced him in what has been described as ‘a Soviet show trial’.

The novel's second central narrative about high school student Minas
Georgiou takes place in 2010, in the midst of a financial crisis that has
also become a deepening social crisis. Minas' history and language arts
teacher gives him the project of re-examining the Polk case after the boy's
surprising announcement that he's not going to apply for a place at
university, and Minas comes "to realize that justice is an abstract
concept…riddled with qualifications, asterisks, interpretations, clashes of
opinion".

Nikolaidou implicitly argues that the injustices of the past are still with
us, and that scapegoating of all kinds pervades the current moment –
including the current ‘scapegoating’ of Greece by the EU. As Nathaniel
Popkin concludes in Cleaver Magazine "The Scapegoat turns out to be an
utterly compelling meditation on the nature of political truth, compromise,
and justice and at the same time an evocative reflection on generational
change".

Sophia Nikolaidou has published four novels and two collections of short
stories, several of which have been translated into eight languages. She
currently participates in the International Festival of Authors - IFOA
(Toronto, October 22 - November 1, 2015).

Read more: Five Questions with… Sophia Nikolaidou; Karen Emmerich’s
Translation Questionnaire; Greece at the Crossroads: The Civil War and Its
Legacy (2004)

PS : There are also other books about George Polk here

http://www.antiqbook.com/search.php?action=search&l=en&searchform=antiqbook&o=kal&full=polk&action=search&l=en&catalog=&author=&title=&description=&year=&century=&keyword=&since=&sBn=

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June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com
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