ΕΓΛ523: Genre Transformations

The objective of the module is to provide an introduction to genre analysis of literature by following the trajectory and the transformations of the novel in Greek literature from antiquity (e.g. Leucippe and Clitophon) through the Byzantine learned romance (e.g. Hysmine and Hysminias), the late Byzantine vernacular romance (e.g. Livistros and Rodamne), the literature of the Cretan Renaissance (Erotokritos), to the different types of novel in 19^th century (Leandros, Polypathis, Pope Joan). Special emphasis is placed on themes, plot, text grammar, recurring motifs, as well as to the ‘reinvention’ of the genre in various historical periods and the multiple receptions, re-emergences and transformations of genre conventions during the historical course of an apparently unitary and fixed literary genre. In all cases, western literary texts of the same period are coexamined in a comparative perspective. The analysis draws upon a wide range of theoretical approaches (cultural studies, post-Marxist criticism, feminism, psychoanalysis, interdisciplinary research, ecocriticism) in order to explore important aspects of both Greek and Western novelistic tradition. Alongside the history of the novel, the module attempts a history of love, the main theme of these texts, and its transformations over the centuries.