The book reflects on the life and work of a significant poet, public figure, and influential commentator of the cultural, social, and political history of Greece post-World War II: Manolis Anagnostakis (1925–2005). It considers his oeuvre in relation to the work of his peers and to traditions of writing, both Greek and non-Greek, as it challenges the assumptions and determinations of his critics. The volume explores the author’s sustained reflection on what it is poetry “does,” if anything, and how it goes about this at different historical moments. It does so through the framework of his political and social perspectives as well as against principles of committed action, above all, to leftist ideas and movements. For Anagnostakis is vitally important for thinking about the relation of politics to poetics and the complex, and in some quarters contradictory, relation of leftist politics and the travails of (euro)communism to poetry and literature. This analysis, therefore, coincides with the larger questioning of the role for the Left post-1989. The volume focuses not only on the poet’s canonical poetry up to 1971, but also on the period of his subsequent, self-imposed “silence” and his other “meta-poetic” writings after that date. Two of Anagnostakis’s previously unavailable late collections and a posthumously published interview with the poet appear here in English translation for the very first time. Coming but a few years after the poet’s death in 2005, this rare book-length study of a single Greek poet (other than Cavafy) features articles by leading critics from the American academy. Like Anagnostakis’s own work, these contributions represent a diverse range of approaches and voices: at turns essayistic, impressionistic, and creative, and, at others, scholarly, punctilious, and critical.

Was migration to Germany a blessing or a curse? The main argument of this book is that the Greek state conceived labor migration as a traineeship into Europeanization with its shiny varnish of progress. Jumping on a fully packed train to West Germany meant leaving the past behind. However, the tensed Cold War realities left no space for illusions; specters of the Nazi past and the Greek Civil War still haunted them all. Adopting a transnational approach, this monograph retargets attention to the sending state by exploring how the Greek Gastarbeiter’s welfare was intrinsically connected with their homeland through its exercise of long-distance nationalism. Apart from its fresh take in postwar migration, the book also addresses methodological challenges in creative ways. The narrative alternates between the macro- and the micro-level, including subnational and transnational actors and integrating a diverse set of primary sources and voices. Avoiding the trap of exceptionalism, it contextualizes the Greek case in the Mediterranean and Southeast European experience.

A broad, accessible account of European modernism as a truly cosmopolitan movement.

In this pioneering study of contemporary Greek poetry, Karen Van Dyck investigates modernist and postmodernist poetics at the edge of Europe. She traces the influential role of Greek women writers back to the sexual politics of censorship under the dictatorship (1967-1974). Reading the effects of censorship—in cartoons, the dictator's speeches, the poetry of the Nobel Laureate George Seferis, and the younger generation of poets—she shows how women poets use strategies which, although initiated in response to the regime's press law, prove useful in articulating a feminist critique. In poetry collections by Rhea Galanaki, Jenny Mastoraki and Maria Laina, among others, she analyzes how the censors'tactics for stabilizing signification are redeployed to disrupt fixed meanings and gender roles. As much a literary analysis of culture as a cultural analysis of literature, her book explores how censorship, consumerism, and feminism influence contemporary Greek women's poetry as well as how the resistance to clarity in this poetry trains readers to rethink these cultural practices. Only with greater attention to the cultural and formal specificity of writing, Van Dyck argues, is it possible to theorize the lessons of censorship and women's writing.

The Parthenon. Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Homer's epic poems. Gods and goddesses lounging around, indulging in pleasures on Mount Olympus. All of these images bring to mind the traditional icons of Greece, the cradle of Western Civilization. But what do we know of modern Greece? The answer to that question and more can be found in this comprehensive look at contemporary Greek culture. This one-stop reference source is packed with illustrative descriptions of daily life in Greece in the 21st century. Ideal for high school students and even undergraduates interested in studying abroad, this extensive volume examines topics such as religion, social customs, leisure life, festivals, language, literature, performing arts, media, and modern art and architecture, among many other topics. Woven into the text are beautiful and accurate vignettes of Greek life, helping to illustrate how it is people live. A crossroads between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Greece is fighting to hold on to the culture of yesterday, while still looking toward modernity. Culture and Customs of Greece is a must-have volume for all high school and public library shelves.

Focusing on the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), the last major conflict in Europe before the end of the Cold War, this study examines the political prisoners whose fate encapsulates the dramatic conflicts and contradictions of that dark era. New sources such as prisoners' letters, memoirs, and official reports, the author describes the life of the prisoners and the effect the prison administration and the prisoners' collective had on their personality. Drawing comparisons to political prisoners in Germany and Spain, the author sheds new light on our understanding of the ideologies and policies and their effect on individuals, which marked European history in the 20th century.

Insight Guide to Greece is a pictorial travel guide in a magazine style providing answers to the key questions before or during your trip: deciding when to go to Greece, choosing what to see, from exploring the Peloponnese to discovering Rhodes or creating a travel plan to cover key places like Athens and Crete. This is an ideal travel guide for travellers seeking inspiration, in-depth cultural and historical information about Greece as well as a great selection of places to see during your trip. The Insight Guide Greece covers: Athens; The Peloponnese; Central Greece; Epirus; Thessaloniki; Macedonia and Thrace; Islands of the Sardonic Gulf; The Cyclades; Crete; Rhodes; The Dodecanese; The Northeast Agean; The Sporades and Evvia; Corfu; The Ionian Islands In this travel guide you will find: IN-DEPTH CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL FEATURES Created to explore the culture and the history of Greece to get a greater understanding of its modern-day life, people and politics BEST OF The top attractions and Editor's Choice highlighting the most special places to visit around Greece CURATED PLACES, HIGH QUALITY MAPS Geographically organised text cross-referenced against full-colour, high quality travel maps for quick orientation in Central Greece, Thessaloniki, and many more locations in Greece. COLOUR-CODED CHAPTERS Every part of Greece, from the islands of the Sardonic Gulf to the Dodecanese has its own colour assigned for easy navigation TIPS AND FACTS Up-to-date historical timeline and in-depth cultural background to Greece as well as an introduction to Greece's Food and Drink and fun destination-specific features. PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION A-Z of useful advice on everything from when to go to Greece, how to get there and how to get around, as well as Greece's climate, advice on tipping, etiquette and more. STRIKING PICTURES Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Parthenon and the spectacular Delphi Sanctuary.

Uses and Abuses of Culture: Greece 1974–2010 presents a new perspective on the ongoing crisis and the broader debate concerning the case of Greece. It examines contemporary perceptions of Greek identity and cultural memory as salient factors of this crisis. The book focuses on the era that began with the fall of the dictatorship in Greece, in 1974, and investigates previous and current pathologies of Greek society in relation to the ways they affected the understanding of the term ‘culture’ up to and including the year 2010. The chapters are structured around pivotal political and social events, and highlight characteristic examples of contemporary visual culture; these encapsulate the tendencies, attitudes, values and ethics of modern Greek society. The book examines issues of cultural identity and collective memory, and explores phenomena of authority and censorship. It argues that participation in culture is equally due to the power of antiquity as well as to the new social values of distinction. A key area of the research centres on the contradictions and conflicts between intrinsic components of Greek cultural and national identities and its adopted European identity, the latter gradually formulated upon Greece’s entry into the European Community in 1981.

A compelling overview of the Orthodox world, covering the main regional traditions of Orthodox Christianity and the ways in which they have become global.