Zola, realism and naturalism in late nineteenth-century Greece
This case study argues that realism is introduced in
nineteenth-century Greek literature through the debate on the translation of Émile
Zola’s Nana in 1879. Before that, prose fiction (which is a
‘novelty’ not cultivated in Greece before 1830 and subject to accusations of
immorality, directed especially towards the translations of foreign novels) may
exhibit ‘realist’ tendencies which remain largely untheorized. It is the attacks
against Nana which force Greek critics to reflect on the notions of
realism and representation systematically, from an abstract, theoretical point of
view. If the problematic of realism is introduced in the 1880s, actual prose fiction
turns towards the (initially) idealized depiction of life in rural areas, a wave of
fiction called ethografia, whose ideological premise is consistent
with Romantic nationalism and which can be seen, at least initially, as a reaction
against realism and naturalism which eventually enters into dialogue with them. The
second part of the case study discusses two turn-of-the-century short novels by
Alexandros Papadiamandis and Andreas Karkavitsas which are crucial in this turn from
the naïve beginnings of ethografia towards a more sustained
engagement with a realist/naturalist theory and practice.
Article outline
- 1.The Greek translation of Nana and the debate on naturalism
- 2.Ethografia, realism, and naturalism
- 3.Two examples of “Ethografia”: Papadiamandis and Karkavitsas
-
Notes
-
Works Cited