Synopsis
Galatea Kazantzaki (nee Galatea Alexiou) (1884–1962), was born in Heraklion Crete. Daughter to eminent, publisher and author Stylianos Alexiou and sister to author, novelist and academic Ellie Alexiou, Galatea was one of the most prolific female authorial voices in Greek Modernism. And yet, to this date, she remains one of the most understudied Greek writers in Anglophone literature. Her surname, associated with her first husband Nikos Kazantzakis, seems to have had a negative impact on her recognition as a major female author of the 20th century Greek Arts and Letters. The lecture on Galatea Kazantzaki will introduce her first years when, as a fledgling author, she was trying her pen in a largely male dominated, literary canon. Her emergence and consistent contribution to Greek literature, journalism, and political activism was not only heavily debated but it was also often derided as subsidiary to or lacking the rigor of her male counterparts. The lecture will provide a closer look at her multifaceted, idiosyncratic approaches to poetry, translation, essay, novel and drama. First conceived during the period of Greek aestheticism and modernism, Galatea’s works span through the decades of interwar years, the German occupation and post-World War II Greece until her untimely death in 1962. The lecture will attempt to shed new light on an important female author whose impact and artistic value are still pending appreciation and acknowledgement from the global community.
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