Manolis Anagnostakis
Manolis Anagnostakis (
Life
Anagnostakis was born in
Anagnostakis began a new cycle of work with his Synecheia (The Continuation), in 1954, and its sequel in 1955. A collection of his works was published the next year. The poet spent 1955 and the next year in Vienna, continuing his medical studies in radiology, before returning to Greece. He spent 1959 through 1961 as editor of Criticism, a journal of literary criticism, and finished his Continuation cycle in 1962. While he did not publish any more major works until 1971's Ta piimata 1941–1971, (The Poems 1941–1971), he continued to contribute to newspapers and magazines.
Although Anagnostakis' 1971 collection represented the end of the published works he was best known for, his
Poetry
Anagnostakis' poetry has been described as "terse".[4] His early works may be comparable in number of lines to
Beaton also notes "a deep distrust of the poet's very medium, which runs through almost all the poetry of his generation",[6] as, for instance, in the poem "Now He Is A Simple Spectator". Also unusual amongst those contemporary poets sharing Anagnostakis' politics is Anagnostakis' use of Christian imagery in his poetry,[8] and, unusual amongst Greek poets in general is a lack of romanticizing of the sea.[1]
In the Synecheia series, written between the Civil War and the Regime of the Colonels, Vangelis Hadjivassiliou notes that Anagnostakis extends that ambivalence to his politics, as well. Anagnostakis asserts both that "...the War is not over yet./ For no war is ever over!" and that he is "Laughing at your wealth of armours/ Suddenly infiltrating your lines/ Upsetting the solid arrays".[2]
The O stochos poems were written during the Regime of the Colonels. This work contains poems differing from the above characterizations of Anagnostakis as "ambivalent" and "grim".
The post-1971 poems were, in some cases, even more terse than the Epoches poems, often being only epigrams. Categorizing Anagnostakis' poetry into a movement has proven somewhat challenging for critics. Hadjivassiliou characterizes the period of the Continuations as "wholly political".[2] Nassos Vagenas, on the other hand, divides post-war Greek poetry into Marxist, existentialist, and surrealist, and then places Anagnostakis in the existentialist movement.[11] Ramp suggests that the poet's lack of recognition outside of Greece can be attributed to the fact that Anagnostakis' poetry is politically "committed",[1] but agrees that the poetry is not influenced by surrealism.
Works
- 1945: Epoches (Seasons), Thessaloniki.
- 1948: Epoches 2 (Seasons 2), Serres.
- 1951: Epoches 3 (Seasons 3), Thessaloniki.
- 1954: Synecheia (The Continuation), Athens.
- 1955: Synecheia 2 (The Continuation 2), Athens.
- 1956: Ta piimata 1941–1956 (The Poems 1941–1956), Athens.
- 1962: Synecheia 3 (The Continuation 3), Thessaloniki.
- 1965: Yper Kai Kata (Pros and Cons), Thessaloniki.
- 1971: O stochos, Athens. English edition, 1980: The target. Selected poems, translated by Kimon Friar
- 1971: Ta piimata 1941–1971, (The Poems 1941–1971), Athens, Stigmi, 1985.
- 1972: Paréntheseis (Parentheses), Athens.
- 1978: Anti-Dogmatica (Anti-dogmatic pieces), Athens.
- 1979: To Perithorio (The Margin), Athens.
- 1983: Y.G. (P.S.), Athens.
- 1985: Ta Sympleromatika (The Complementary Pieces: Critical Notes), Athens.
- 1987: O piitis Manussos Fassis, (The Poet Manussos Fassis), Athens, Stigmi, 1987.
Awards
- 1985 Greek State Prize for poetry
- 2001 Ourani Award from the Academy of Athens
- 2002 Great National Literature Award for lifetime work
Notes and references
- ISBN 1-899549-19-6.
- ^ a b "The Deafening Sound of Silence". Archived from the original on October 27, 2005. Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- ^ "The Greek film festival 2000 (Greek)". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved October 1, 2005.
- ^ a "Manolis Anagnostakis". Archived from the original on October 28, 2005. Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- ^ See "Winter 1942" as an example. Translation into English by Philip Ramp at "Winter 1942". Archived from the original on October 27, 2005. Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- ^ a Roderick Beaton, quoted in "Poetry International". Archived from the original on October 28, 2005. Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- ^ See "The Morning..." as an example. Translation into English by Philip Ramp at "Winter 1942". Archived from the original on October 27, 2005. Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- S2CID 146577389. Retrieved October 2, 2005. and in "Athens News: Easter(n) rites' lament and jubilation". Archived from the originalon April 19, 2004. Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- ^ Unattributed translation from "Ithaka: A Tribute to Constantine P. Cavafy". Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- ^ "Literature after the second World War". Retrieved October 2, 2005.
- ^ Nasos Vagenas (2004). "Manolis Anagnostakis, existential poet". Archived from the original on 2016-11-23. Retrieved November 22, 2016.