Artists on the islands of Modern Greek Literature

Abstract

TSIRKAS’ short story “For a pair of roses”, written during the Civil war (1947), shows the inability of the artist to produce art in the state of willing isolation upon an island. The Left writer declares thus his opposition to the art of “ivory tower”, which is here represented by an island. Contrary to him, Galatia Sarandi, who belongs to the opposite political party, attempts during the ’50s to present the island as the ideal place for creation. Yet in her short story “Greek island” there is a fear of isolation being concealed, tending to subvert the ideology of a non-committed art. The after-war Right wing in Greece did not succeed to produce an answer to the Left wing, at least as far as artistic-matters are concerned. However, at the end of the 20th century, when suddenly the number of artists-on-an-island increases vertically in the pages of Greek literature, the writers are no more interested in the dispute between pure and engaged art, but they are plainly busy with painting the “moeurs” of a social stratum that has gained its autonomy. Th e island, from a place of positively or negatively marked isolation, has become a place of joyful autonomy.