Patterns of recollection and historical testimony in Thanasis Valtinos' Orthokosta

Abstract

  The aim of this paper is to present a fresh reading of Thanasis Valtinos' Orthokosta using historiographical tools along with literary ones, primarily by studying the discourse regarding the Security Battalions members throughout Post-War Greece. Moreover, an attempt will be made to place the 47+2 narrations of Orthokosta (47 numbered chapters, and two fragments situated in the beginning and the end of the book respectively) in the proper historical context of their creation (1984). Finally, an analysis of the structure and the content of the narrations of the individuals involved will expose patterns of a superstructure that is partly responsible for what they recollect, what they narrate, and what they possibly attempt to prove or hide. On a second level, this paper will also try to examine the 10 narrations of the book that are not directly concerned with the Civil War, in order to produce a reading of the book that can be correlated with and placed within the wider framework of Valtinos' work.