Yannis Psycharis's Greek novels (1888-1929) : didactic narratives, cultural views and self-referentiality

Pateridou, Georgia (2004). Yannis Psycharis's Greek novels (1888-1929) : didactic narratives, cultural views and self-referentiality. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to examine Psycharis's Greek novels by focusing on his modes of writing and the ideas manifested in them.

Psycharis saw his role as that of an intellectual aiming to reform Greek culture and he fought consistently for the establishment of the demotic - as he understood it as the language of literature. Yet his novels serve as a filter not only for his views on language and literature, but also for other social and philosophical issues of relevance to his time, and even to contemporary readers.

I have defined three major areas for examination: the didacticism of the novels, expressed in the themes and in the narrative techniques employed by the author; the overall recurring cultural views presented in them, and the preoccupation with the importance of fiction, the role of literature and of the prose writer.

The novels will be examined in chronological order and I shall address each of the three major areas explained above in turn, emphasising the most prominent one in each case. The objective of this thesis is to make Psycharis's Greek novels better known and to indicate the role that he played in the development of Modern Greek prose and culture.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):