Modern Greek Poetry

This paper is intended for those who want to discover how Greek poetry has developed in modern times. The prescribed authors are the two leading Greek poets of the twentieth century, C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933) and George Seferis (1900-1971). The constant concern of both these poets was the problematic cultural relationship between the ancient and the modern Greeks, and between the ancient past and the modern world in general, and their work is suffused with references to the history and mythology of the ancient world.

Cavafy was born in Alexandria, where he lived almost all his life. Apart from influences from modern European art and literature (particularly Symbolism and Aestheticism), he drew on lesser known areas of Hellenistic and Byzantine history (as opposed to the Athenian Golden Age) for his subject matter, and partly modelled his style on the epigrams of the Greek Anthology. His ironic blend of history and eroticism (specifically homoeroticism) has given him a unique position in European literature and has earned him a worldwide reputation.

Seferis was born in Smyrna, but lost his home there in the compulsory exchange of minorities between Greece and Turkey after the Greek defeat (1922) in the Greco-Turkish War. He worked as a diplomat, completing his career as Greek Ambassador to London, where he contributed to the foundation of the independent Republic of Cyprus (1960). Like Cavafy's, his poetry bears the traces of his profound engagement with ancient Greek literature (notably Homer and Aeschylus in his case) and with modern European poetry (particularly T. S. Eliot). While recording the agonising historical experiences of a twentieth-century European, his poetry attempts to make sense of the chaos of the modern world by placing it in the wider context of the moral conclusions that can be drawn from ancient Greek poetry and philosophy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963.

The teaching for this paper falls into two parts, the language component and the literature component. While the literature component is taught in the first two terms of the final year, it is recommended that candidates begin their language work in their third year, during which elementary Modern Greek is taught in the first two terms; this teaching can be supplemented in subsequent terms by self-tuition in the Language Teaching Centre. Nevertheless, there is nothing to stop candidates taking the whole course in their final year. With a sound grasp of Classical Greek, it does not take long to be able to read Modern Greek.

The examination consists of one paper, which requires candidates to translate and comment on extracts from the set texts and to write essays on the work of the two poets.