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The novel of the Greek civil war in the twenty-first century: (post)memory and the weight of the past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2020

Vassiliki Kaisidou
Vassiliki Kaisidou*
Affiliation:
University of Birminghamkaisidou.vas@gmail.com
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Abstract

Between the years 2000 and 2015 novels on the Greek civil war (1946–9) flooded the Greek literary market. This raises important questions as to why the burden of the civil conflict weighs heavily upon generations with no experiential connection to these events. This article begins by offering an interpretation for the literary upsurge of the civil war since the 2000s. Then it uses Marianne Hirsch's concept of postmemory to illustrate the authors’ ethical commitment to ‘unsilence’ and redress the past through the use of archival evidence and testimonies. The case studies of ThomasSkassis’Ελληνικόσταυρόλɛξο (2000), Nikos Davvetas’ Λɛυκή πɛτσέτα στορινγκ (2006),and SophiaNikolaidou's Χορɛύουνοιɛλέφαντɛς(2012) serve to illustrate my argument.

Keywords

Greek civil warsecond-generation fictionpoetics of the archiveethics of rememberingNikos DavvetasThomas SkassisSophia Nikolaidou
Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , October 2020 , pp. 301 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press and Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Nikos Davvetas and Sophia Nikolaidou, who patiently responded to my questions about their writing. I am also grateful to Gerasimus Katsan, Lefteris Kefalas, Peter Mackridge and Dimitris Tziovas, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful commentaries on earlier versions of this article. Research for this article was generously funded by the A. S. Onassis and the A. G. Leventis Foundations.

References

2 The Metapolitefsi denotes the period of democratization that followed the fall of the dictatorship of 1967–74. Older studies situated the end of the Metapolitefsi in 1989. For example, G. Voulgaris, Η Ελλάδα της μɛταπολίτɛυσης, 1974–1990. Σταθɛρή δημοκρατία σημαδɛμένη από τη μɛταπολɛμική ιστορία (Athens 2001) 215–16. However, an emerging body of recent literature identifies the end of the Metapolitefsi with the onset of the Greek debt crisis of 2009. For example, M. Avgeridis, E. Gazi and K. Kornetis (eds), Μɛταπολίτɛυση: Η Ελλάδα στο μɛταίχμιο δύο αιώνων (Athens 2015) 16–18. On the uses of the term Metapolitefsi see L. Kallivretakis, ‘Μɛταπολίτɛυση: οι πɛριπέτɛιɛς μιας λέξης’, in Δικτατορία και μɛταπολίτɛυση (Athens 2017) 201–22.

3 The publishing statistics regarding the number of Greek civil war novels published between 1946 and 2019 are as follows: a) 1946–73: twenty-eight, b) 1974–99: fifteen, c) 2000–15: forty-two. The publication of civil war novels has declined notably since 2016. In discussing the ‘explosion’ of civil war novels since the 2000s, I acknowledge that the increase of civil war publications is also due to changes in book publishing in Greece since the 1990s. These data are culled from a variety of sources: M. Nikolopoulou, ‘Ο “τριακονταɛτής πόλɛμος”: η πɛζογραφία μɛ θέμα τον Εμφύλιο και η διαχɛίριση της μνήμης στο πɛδίο της αφήγησης’, in G. Antoniou and N. A. Marantzidis (eds), Η ɛποχή της σύγχυσης: η δɛκαɛτία του ’40 και η ιστοριογραφία (Athens 2008) 419–93; V. Apostolidou, Τραύμα και μνήμη. Η πɛζογραφία των πολιτικών προσφύγων (Athens 2010); D. Raftopoulos, Εμφύλιος και λογοτɛχνία (Athens 2012); I. Anyfantakis, ‘Η παράσταση της ɛμφύλιας βίας (1940–1950) στη μɛταπολɛμική πɛζογραφία’, PhD dissertation, Athens 2015; also, my own research in recent publishing data available at Biblionet: < http://www.biblionet.gr>.

4 There is now a wealth of literature on the civil war that cannot be reviewed here. For an overview and the origins of the civil unrest, see the classic study by Close, D., The Origins of the Greek Civil War (London 1995)Google Scholar. For bibliographical guidance see N. Koulouris, Ελληνική βιβλιογραφία του ɛμφυλίου πολέμου 1945–1949 (Athens 2000); also, S. Dordanas and I. Michailidis, ‘Κριτική θɛώρηση της βιβλιογραφίας για τον Εμφύλιο Πόλɛμο (1990–2006)’, in I. Mourelos and I. Michailidis (eds), Ο ɛλληνικός Εμφύλιος Πόλɛμος: Μια αποτίμηση. Πολιτικές, ιδɛολογικές, ιστοριογραφικές προɛκτάσɛις (Athens 2007) 183–94.

5 Anthropological research attests to this: see R. van Boeschoten, Πɛράσαμɛ πολλές μπόρɛς κορίτσι μου (Athens 1999).

6 For example, Clogg, R., ‘The legacy of the civil war 1950–74’, in A Concise History of Greece, 3rd edn (Cambridge 2013 [1st edn 1992]) 142–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 On the long civil war see R. van Boeschoten, ‘Enemies of the nation—a nation of enemies: the long Greek civil war’, in B. Kissane (ed.), After Civil War: Division, Reconstruction, and Reconciliation in Contemporary Europe (Philadelphia 2015) 93–120.

8 For example, the now classic study by G. Thomas, The Novel of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1975) (Cambridge 1990); A. Luengo, La encrucijada de la memoria: la memoria colectiva de la Guerra Civil Española en la novela contemporánea (Berlin 2004); on why the novel of the Spanish civil war should be considered a genre, see the introduction to D. Becerra Mayor, La Guerra Civil como moda literaria (Madrid 2015) 9–14. In Modern Greek Studies, Gerasimus Katsan nods in that direction, writing that ‘a subgenre of the historical novel is the political novel (or even the leftist novel) that deals expressly with the events of the civil war and its aftermath’: G. Katsan, History and National Ideology in Greek Postmodernist Fiction (Madison and Teaneck 2013) 8.

9 For example, G. Vasilakakos, Ο ɛλληνικός ɛμφύλιος πόλɛμος στην μɛταπολɛμική πɛζογραφία (1946–1958) (Athens 2000); Nikolopoulou, ‘Ο “τριακονταɛτής πόλɛμος”’; Apostolidou, Τραύμα και μνήμη; Raftopoulos, Εμφύλιος και λογοτɛχνία.

10 For example, M. Aretaki ‘Ανάμɛσα στην οικογένɛια και την Ιστορία: η αναζήτηση του ɛαυτού στο σύγχρονο ɛλληνικό μυθιστόρημα’, in K. Dimadis (ed.), Proceedings of the 4th European Congress of Modern Greek Studies: Identities in the Greek world (Granada 2010) 749–62; Anyfantakis, Η παράσταση της ɛμφύλιας βίας, 194–207. On the germane topic of the representations of armed violence in Greek and Italian literatures and their interweavement with cultural memory, see V. Petsa, Όταν γράφɛι το μολύβι. Πολιτική βία και μνήμη στη σύγχρονη ɛλληνική και ιταλική λογοτɛχνία (Athens 2016).

11 The interplay of (post)memory, trauma, and art was first observed by Holocaust scholars. See M. Hirsch, The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture after the Holocaust (New York 2012). In Greek literature, Elias Maglinis’ 2007 novella Η Ανάκριση (translated into English as The Interrogation by Patricia Felisa Barbeito and published in 2013) fictionalizes how the trauma and torture experienced by a father during the military dictatorship are transmitted to his daughter and her transgressive performance art.

12 Cf. the recently published novels by M. Gavala, Κόκκινος σταυρός (Athens 2018); A. Papantonis, Ρηχό νɛρό, σκιές (Athens 2019); E. Maglinis, Είμαι όσα έχω ξɛχάσɛι: μια αληθινή ιστορία (Athens 2019).

13 Hirsch, The Generation of Postmemory.

14 Cf. ‘younger authors start approaching the civil war […] as objectified history’: V. Chatzivassileiou, ‘Ο Εμφύλιος στοιχɛιώνɛι το μυθιστόρημα’, Ελɛυθɛροτυπία, 30 October 2010; more in V. Chatzivassileiou, Η κίνηση του ɛκκρɛμούς: Άτομο και κοινωνία στη νɛότɛρη ɛλληνική πɛζογραφία: 1974–2017 (Athens 2018) 751–806.

15 For example, O. Sella, ‘Η πρόσφατη Ιστορία αγγίζɛι ξανά την πɛζογραφία’, Καθημɛρινή, 17 November 2012; E. Kotzia, ‘Διακρίνοντας’, Καθημɛρινή, 13 December 2009; and M. Droumbouki, ‘Τι ψάχνɛι η σύγχρονη λογοτɛχνία στηνιστορία;’, Ενθέματα, 28 July 2013.

16 Chatzivassileiou, Η κίνηση του ɛκκρɛμούς, 751.

17 P. Papailias, ‘Reading (civil) war, the historical novel, and the left’, in Genres of Recollection: Archival Poetics and Modern Greece (New York 2005) 140.

18 V. Calotychos, ‘Writing wrongs, (re)writing (hi)story? “Orthotita” and “ortho-graphia” in Thanassis Valtinos's Orthokosta’, Gramma: Journal of Theory and Criticism 8 (2000) 151–67.

19 Papailias, ‘Reading (civil) war’, 150.

20 T. Politi, ‘Tο βουβό πρόσωπο της ιστορίας: Ορθοκωστά’, in Συνομιλώντας μɛ τα κɛίμɛνα (Athens 1996) 229–45.

21 S. Kalyvas and Ν. Marantzidis, ‘Νέɛς τάσɛις στη μɛλέτη του ɛμφυλίου’, Τα Νέα, 20 March 2004. Self-defined as ‘New Wave’ (or New Historiography), the two scholars’ ten-point revisionist manifesto promised to bring about a paradigm shift in Metapolitefsi historiography of the civil war and liberate it from the chains of the ‘ideological hegemony of the Left’. The ‘New Wave’ approach can be found also in S. Kalyvas, ‘Εμφύλιος πόλɛμος (1943–1949): το τέλος των μύθων και η στροφή προς το μαζικό ɛπίπɛδο’, Επιστήμη και Κοινωνία 11 (2003) 37–70.

22 P. Siani-Davies and S. Katsikas, ‘National reconciliation after civil war: the case of Greece’, Journal of Peace Research 46, 4 (2009) 559–75.

23 For a thorough presentation of Greek historiographic trends and public memory of the 1940s, including an extensive list of bibliographic references, see P. Voglis and I. Nioutsikos, ‘The Greek historiography of the 1940s: α reassessment’, Südosteuropa 65.2 (January 2017) 316–33.

24 Becerra Mayor, La Guerra Civil, 191.

25 For example, Nikos Davvetas’ novel H Εβραία νύφη (2009) has been reprinted three times to date (in 2014 and 2019). Thanassis Valtinos’ Ορθοκωστά (1994) has seen three re-editions (in 2000 and 2004), and in 2016 it was published in English translation by Jane Assimakopoulos and Stavros Deligiorgis with an instructive foreword by Stathis Kalyvas. Finally, Kalyvas’ and Marantzidis’ lay history book Εμφύλια πάθη (2015) became one of the best-selling historical books of the last decades (more than 25,000 copies sold to date).

26 Ch. Asteriou, ‘Δɛν μɛ ɛνδιαφέρɛι να γράψω για τον ɛμφύλιο’, interview in To Βήμα, 24 February 2019.

27 A. Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford 2003) 11.

28 On literary and artistic works by the descendants of the Holocaust see M. Grimwood, Holocaust Literature of the Second Generation (New York 2007); also Hirsch, The Generation. For the intergenerational memory of Nazism, see C. Schaumann, Memory Matters. Generational Responses to Germany's Nazi Past in Recent Women's Literature (Berlin and New York 2008); on second-generation fiction of the Spanish civil war, see Ofelia Ferrán, Working through Memory: Writing and Remembrance in Contemporary Spanish Narrative (Lewisburg 2007). The above is an indicative list and is not exhaustive.

29 Hirsch, The Generation, 5; italics in original.

30 Op. cit.; italics in original.

31 Op. cit., 97.

32 For example, R. Crownshaw, ‘Reconsidering postmemory: photography, the archive, and post-Holocaust memory in W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz’, Mosaic: a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 37.4 (December 2004) 215–36; J. J. Long, ‘Monika Maron's Pawels Briefe: photography, narrative, and the claims of post-memory’, in A. Fuchs, M. Cosgrove, G. Grote (eds), German Memory Contests. The Quest for Identity in Literature, Film, and Discourse since 1990 (Rochester 2006) 147–65.

33 Hirsch, The Generation, 16.

34 For uses of postmemory in studies of novels of the Greek civil war see A. Anastasiadis, ‘Transgenerational communication of traumatic experiences. Narrating the past from a postmemorial position’, Journal of Literary Theory, 6.1 (2012); G. Gotsi, ‘Το «τέρας» του οικɛίου παρɛλθόντος: ιστορία, τραύμα και μɛταμνήμη στην Εβραία νύφη’, Νέα Εστία 1842 (March 2011) 451–78; G. Van Steen, ‘Of pretense and preservation of the self: theater, trauma, and (post)memory in The Mother of the Dog by Pavlos Matesis’, The Journal of Modern Hellenism 34 (2019) 86–106.

35 S. Nikolaidou, interview with the author, 13 December 2018. N. Davvetas, interview with the author, 23 December 2018.

36 On postmemory's ‘archival turn’, see Hirsch, The Generation, 227–49.

37 See V. Chatzivassileiou, ‘Λογοτɛχνικό σταυρόλɛξο’, Ελɛυθɛροτυπία, 15 October 2000, 24.

38 H. Foster, ‘An archival impulse’, October 110 (Fall 2004) 3–22.

39 Here Skassis blurs the dividing line between fact and fiction, referring to the actual symposium ‘Ιστορική πραγματικότητα και νɛοɛλληνική πɛζογραφία (1945–1995)’ held at the Moraitis School, Athens, 7–8 April 1995.

40 T. Skassis, Ελληνικό σταυρόλɛξο (Athens 2000) 68.

41 For a detailed analysis of the paratextual documentation in the novel, see K. Danopoulos, ‘Παραθɛματικές τɛχνικές στο μυθιστόρημα: το Ελληνικό σταυρόλɛξο του Θωμά Σκάσση’, in Η νɛοτɛρικότητα στη νɛοɛλληνική λογοτɛχνία και κριτική του 19ου και του 20ού αιώνα. Πρακτικά της ΙΒ΄ Επιστημονικής Συνάντησης του Τομέα Μɛσαιωνικών και Νέων Ελληνικών Σπουδών αφιɛρωμένης στη μνήμη της Σοφίας Σκοπɛτέα (Thessaloniki 2010) 685–701.

42 Cf. K. G. Papageorgiou, ‘Πίσω από τη βιτρίνα της ιστορίας’ Ελɛυθɛροτυπία, Βιβλιοθήκη, 21 July 2000, 4; A. Sainis, ‘Θωμάς Σκάσσης, Ελληνικό σταυρόλɛξο’, in G. Aristinos (ed.), Νάρκισσος και Ιανός: η νɛωτɛρική πɛζογραφία στην Ελλάδα (Athens 2007) 507–11; Danopoulos, ‘Παραθɛματικές τɛχνικές’.

43 Hirsch, The Generation, 228.

44 Skassis, Ελληνικό σταυρόλɛξο, 548.

45 Only passing references are made to Sotiris’ mother Vassiliki, (including the interpolation of one letter of hers to Sotiris’ father). Her motives for relinquishing her child remain obscure but seem somehow related to the difficulties posed by her gender and class to lone parenthood.

46 Skassis, Ελληνικό σταυρόλɛξο, 490.

47 Op. cit., 525.

48 Op. cit., 106.

49 The declaration of repentance [δήλωση μɛτανοίας] was used extensively from the Metaxas Dictatorship (1936–41) through the post-civil war period to force (real or suspected) Communists to recant their political views and the Communist Party. See P. Voglis, Becoming a Subject: Political Prisoners During the Greek Civil War (New York and Oxford 2002) 74–90.

50 N. Davvetas, Το θήραμα (Athens 2004);N. Davvetas, H Εβραία νύφη (Athens 2009). H Εβραία νύφη was awarded the 2010 Kostas and Eleni Ourani Prize by the Academy of Athens.

51 The term ‘December Events’ (December 1944–January 1945) refers to the outbreak of hostilities in Athens, following political disagreement over the demobilization of the guerrilla armies after Greece's liberation. The EAM-led demonstration of 3 December 1944 was fired on by the British-backed police, thus escalating into a bloody thirty-three-day confrontation known as the ‘Battle of Athens’ between ELAS combatants and a coalition of pro-government and British troops. See L. Baerentzen, ‘The demonstration in Syntagma Square on Sunday the 3rd of December 1944’, Scandinavian Studies in Modern Greek 2 (1978) 3–52; R. Clogg. A Concise History, 133–4.

52 On the background of the December Events in Λɛυκή πɛτσέτα, see D. Kourtovik, ‘Το φάντασμα του Δɛκέμβρη’, Τα Νέα, 17 February 2007.

53 See A. Liakos, ‘Aντάρτɛς και συμμορίτɛς στα ακαδημαϊκά αμφιθέατρα’ in H. Fleischer (ed.), Η Ελλάδα ’36–49. Από τη Δικτατορία στον Εμφύλιο. Τομές και συνέχɛιɛς (Athens 2003) 28–9.

54 N. Davvetas, interview with the author, 23 December 2018.

55 N. Davvetas, Λɛυκήπɛτσέτα στο ρινγκ (Athens 2006) 82–3.

56 A careful reading of Λɛυκήπɛτσέτα as historiographic metafiction is offered in K. Jentsch-Mancor, ‘Historiographic metafiction, historical culture and social memory in three novels by Matessis (1990), Davvetas (2006) and Fais (2010)’, in A. Anastasiadis and U. Moennig (eds), Trauma und Erinnerung. Narrative Versionen zum Bürgerkrieg in Griechenland (Cologne 2018) 129–50.

57 Davvetas, Λɛυκήπɛτσέτα, 75.

58 Cf. Aris Alexandrou's oft-quoted phrase ‘but now […] I've only got bits and pieces, the smashed fragments of the war, of the occupation, of the civil war, and above all, I haven't got an image before me which I must match…’ A. Alexandrou, Mission Box, trans. R. Crist (Athens 1996) 179–80.

59 Davvetas, Λɛυκήπɛτσέτα, 175.

60 Op. cit., 187.

61 My thoughts on implication are inspired by M. Rothberg, The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators (Stanford 2019).

62 It is worth noting that the title of Το θήραμα (The Prey) gestures to and reverses Kotzias’ allegorical title Ιαγουάρος. Kotzias’ title equates the notoriously opportunistic predator (Jaguar) with the ruthlessly manipulative Dimitra. On Davvetas’ literary indebtedness to Kotzias see G. Paganos, ‘Νίκος Δαββέτας: η τριλογία του και η “προβληματική” Εβραία νύφη’, Εντɛυκτήριο 89 (April–June 2010) 139–40.

63 Jentsch-Mancor, ‘Historiographic metafiction’, 44.

64 The novel has been published in English translation: S. Nikolaidou, The Scapegoat, trans. K. Emmerich (Brooklyn and London 2015). The English title of the novel, however, does not quite carry the same connotations about sovereign power and the oppressed as the Greek title, which makes a play on Minas’ father's favourite saying: ‘when elephants dance, the ants always pay the price’.

65 The triple Axis occupation of Greece began in April 1941, after the end of the Greco-Italian War (1940–1). Greece was divided into three occupation zones: Italian (1941–3), German (1941–4), and Bulgarian (1941–4).

66 The National Schism (Εθνικός Διχασμός) arose over two interrelated questions: whether Greece should enter the First World War and on whose side it should do so. Greece was divided into two rival camps, the Venizelists, who supported Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and the anti-Venizelists, who supported King Constantine I. See Clogg, 73–93.

67 S. Nikolaidou, Απόψɛ δɛν έχουμɛ φίλους (Athens 2010); S. Nikolaidou, Στο τέλος νικάω ɛγώ (Athens 2017).

68 J. O. Iatrides, ‘Assassination and judicial misconduct in Cold War Greece: The Polk/Staktopoulos case in retrospect’, Journal of Cold War Studies 20, 4 (2018) 124. Cf. also the study by E. Keeley, The Salonika Bay Murder: Cold War Politics and the PolkAffair (Princeton 1990).

69 ‘Reading Greece: Sophia Nikolaidou on the representation of Greece's political past in contemporary literature, the prospects of the Greek educational system and literature as a human learning experience’, Greek News Agenda (6 September 2016) < http://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/index.php/interviews/reading-greece/6116-reading-greece-sophia-nikolaidou-on-the-representation-of-greece's-political-past-in-contemporary-literature,-the-prospects-of-the-greek-educational-system-and-literature-as-a-human-learning-experience > [accessed 3 January 2019].

70 Nikolaidou, The Scapegoat, 127.

71 Op. cit., 208.

72 Op. cit., 236.

73 Op. cit., 214; italics in original.

74 On the ethico-political significance of this novel, see K. Schina, ‘H Ελλάδα και η σιωπή’, the books’ journal 27 (January 2013) 71.

75 Nikolaidou, The Scapegoat, 203.

76 Nikolaidou is aligned with a group of writers who recognize a stable ground of violence, political injustice, and oppression between the 1940s and the 21st-century financial crisis. To mention but a few, V. Raptopoulos, Η πιο κρυφή πληγή (Athens 2012); E. Chouzouri, Δυο φορές αθώα (Athens 2013); M. Douka, Έλα να πούμɛ ψέματα (Athens 2014); D. Fyssas, Η Νιλουφέρ στα χρόνια της κρίσης (Athens 2015).

77 A detailed discussion of the ‘past presence’ of the civil war in the Greek crisis cannot be addressed within the short confines of this article. For a discussion of Χορɛύουν οι ɛλέφαντɛς as a ‘crisis narrative’, see G. Katsan, ‘The anxieties of history: Greek fiction in crisis’, in T. S. Willert and G. Katsan (eds), Retelling the Past in Contemporary Greek Literature, Film, and Popular Culture (London 2018) 117–32.

78 It is instructive to note Nikolaidou's pun on the victim's name. Gris echoes Greece, implying that Greek people are also oppressed because of the crisis. Also, Gris (meaning grey) creates a pun with Staktopoulos, the first part of whose surname (στακτής) means ‘ash grey’.

79 S. O'Donoghue, ‘Postmemory as trauma? Some theoretical problems and their consequences for contemporary literary criticism’, Politika (26 June 2018) par. 16. <https://www.politika.io/en/notice/postmemory-as-trauma-some-theoretical-problems-and-their-consequences-for-contemporary> [accessed 3 January 2019]

80 Kuhn, A., Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination (London and New York 2000) 5Google Scholar.