Studien zur griechischen Literaturtradition

The monography includes ten studies, starting from the 3rd century B.C. and finishing in the 20th century. The first chapter, "The mimiambes of Herodas in Late Antiquity: declamation for a solo mime or theatrical performance?" deals with the seven (or eight) texts of the "mimiambes" of Herodas (or Herondas or Herodes) in the third century B. C., short dialogical scenes of urban life in the hellenistic epoque, written for declamation by a single mime performer. The second chapter, "Christus patiens and ancient tragedy. The loss of scenic understanding during the Byzantine middle ages", analyses the extended dialogical cento-text of "Christus patiens" and the numerous problems which are set by this unique compilation of ancient tragic sources and the christian Gospels, giving arguments for the controversal dating of the text (4/5th century or 11/12th), a hypothesis of the authorship and the intended auditorium, and discussing the literary genre as well: Christian tragedy, Passion Play or dialogical cento- poem? The third chapter, "The Cyprus Passion Cycle and its problems", analyses a similar cento-text (written before 1320) and highlights its philological problems (authorship, dating, western or eastern origin, theatricality etc.), open problems which have cumulated a numerous highly controversal bibliography. The text is unique in Byzantine literature because of his prologue, addressing clearly the organisator of an intended scenic production, but from the citations of biblical and apocryphical sources only the first words (incipit) are written down and linked together with "scenic directions" put in the imperative. The fourth chapter, "The Greek chapbook of Bertoldo (1646): the dialogical structure of a popular reading matter", analyses one of the most popular chapbooks of post- byzantine Hellenism; the narrative structure of the comic story is interspersed with many dialogical scenes in direct speech, in such a way that the reader is many times transformed in the spectator of a scene played in front of him. The fifth chapter, "Germanograecia at the beginning of the 19th century: the literary translations of Konstantinos Kokkinakis and Ioannis Papadopoulos", analyses the translations of four theatre plays of August von Kotzebue by Konstantinos Kokkinakis (edited in Vienna 1801) and the two dramatic translations of Ioannis Papadopoulos, the "Quäker" by the same author (Bucharest 1913/14) and "Iphigenie in Tauris" by Johann Wolgang von Goethe (edited in Jena 1818). The following chapters are focussed on the 19th century as well: the sixth, "Femal drama in the time of the Greek Revolution" presents the works of three femal writers with explicit "feministic" consciousness (the prologues are addressed only to the femal readers): Mitio Sakellariou, Elisabeth Moutzan-Martinegou and Evanthia Kari. The seventh chapter, "Patriotic drama in the 19th century" gives an overview about the production and development of the genre of dramatic works inspired by episodes and heroes of the Greek Revolution of 1821 during the 19th century. The eighth chapter, "Greek language satires in the epoque of bourgeoisie", analyses satiric texts on the language question and dialectical comedies of the 19th century: 1) the satire of the figure of the "learned" teacher and his archaistic expressions ("ancient Greek"), 2) the satire of the local idioms of Greece on stage, and 3) the satire of the extravagant use of foreign word and phrases by the bourgeoisie (mostly French). The ninth chapter, "The Death of the young man by Kostis Palamas (1891). Studies in the Greek village novel", is dedicated to an exceptional paradigm of the Greek prosa writing with provincial topics ("ethographism"): in an scrupelous analysis of this text mainly the ironic "play" of the author with his intended reader is highlighted. The tenth and last chapter, "Odysseas Elytis and Greek surrealism in the poetry of the 20th century" places the Nobel winner in the literary production of the Mid-War-period and analysises some of his poems, in essential points clearly different from French surrealism and dedicated to the myth of sun and light of the Egean sea.