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“Freedom-loving speech:” Greek poetry and modern revolution

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Title

“Freedom-loving speech:” Greek poetry and modern revolution

Spatial Coverage

Date

03 December 2021

Abstract

How did Greek poetry conceive of the 1821 uprising as a case of that distinctly modern political phenomenon we call revolution? This talk argues that in his early poem “[From a cave dressed]”, Dionysios Solomos posits lyric voice as a site where the modernity of the called-for Greek revolution is tested. Starting from seemingly minor aspects of the poem (Why does Solomos substitute the name of Theocritus for Anacreon in his manuscript? Why does he use two rhyme schemes?), it shows that the poem’s figurations of voice follow a progressively developing path: natural and song-like enunciation gives way to an utterance that is commensurate with the reflective, thinking speech of a modern subject. This reading enables us to situate the work in a broader intellectual context that conceptualised voice as a potent aesthetic and political category, operative in the founding of new political and national communities.

(Edited abstract from organiser’s website)

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Format

Text

Language

Number Of Pages - Duration

00:20:00

Rights

BY-NC-SA Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Position: 10042 (16 views)