Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Manolis Anagnostakis

Introduction

Manolis Anagnostakis wanted his life experiences to be known and therefore he wished to speak especially to the younger generations of protesters. He underlines that writing has at different times quite another meaning. During German occupation writing meant resistance, but when the Greek Junta ruled, then writing (and publishing) was the equivalent to collaboration. That is important to remember in times like these when protests against austerity measures express themselves no longer just in demonstrations, but in search of a new life based on a very different definition of especially 'mental health'. The youth has to cope with a lot of 'rage' and the question is what can resolve this anger ahead of times promising to get even tougher especially when it comes to find a well paid job?

Reflections about Manolis Anagnostakis

Of great interest is what Anagnostakis had to say about him growing up in Thessaloniki. For he ended up describing use of language as following the mode of gangs within specific neighborhoods and who would clash with other gangs using a different idoms. How could then anyone claim to know something about a proper Greek language, was his question?

In his autobiography he makes many valid points and important observations.

Most often he touches upon subject matters which need to be reflect upon further: language and translation, poetry compared with prose, and the social relevance of poetry.

Manolis Anagnostakis points out over and again that he stopped writing poetry but this others often mistook as going silent. For he did not stop writing like Pavese did but rather continued to write essays and articles and went on to publish them. Writing has for him a special meaning within very specific political contexts.

It is interesting to read in his autobiography that he calls himself a political and erotic poet. And his criticism of Cavafy is very refreshing. What he says about Elytis is also true to the point.

With him having been editor of various kinds of Journals in difficult times, it is equally of importance to note what distinction he draws between Occupation and Dictatorship, or when writing was a means of joyous expression during German occupation 1941-44 and when a sign of collaboration with the Junta (1967 - 74).

Silence as a weapon against oppression while during dictatorship silence is the cultural proof that creativity is only possible under very specific conditions. They reveal upon taking a closer look that a sound ethical base must exist on which to base one's writing on.

Among others, the poet Yiorgos Chouliaras draws attention to this poet who some believe had gone silent. Due to his contributions it allows for another perception of Greece and what goes on within such a society, especially with regards to its many outstanding poets.

 

His position in Greek poetry

“If, borrowing a page from the Greek War of Independence, we speak of ‘three parties’ in modern Greek poetry — an initially preponderant “French” — with Elytis and the surrealists, a “Russian” — with Varnalis and Ritsos, and an eventually dominant Anglo-American one — with Seferis, Anagnostakis as a “politically erotic” poet imploded these divisions and helped delineate alternative traditions for those following the “generation of the thirties.”

- Yiorgos Chouliaras speaking at the 2006 conference at Columbia U. under the title: "The Issue is What You Say Now. Lives of the Poets: The Anagnostakis Case" as reported by Vicki J. Yiannias

 

A poet goes silent in a certain way

"In his lecture Silent Poets: What is poetry for…?, Marinos Pourgouris of Brown University dealt with the topic of Anagnostakis’s “silence” (he said “Silence is also an art”) during different periods, a frequent topic). He argued that Anagnostakis’s silence should be understood in the context of the wider “discourse of silence” that permeates Modernism, referring to Anagnostakis’s early influences from French Modernists, especially the surrealists."

- Vicki J. Yiannias, "Ten Scholars Talk about Gringlish and Anagnostakis at Columbia University"

 

 

The silence

References:

Relevant information:

Chapter 1 _"I am left-handed, essentially"_by Manolis Anagnostakis (translated & adapted into Englishby the poet Yiorgos Chouliaras)

AND Chapter 6 _"The Issue Is What You Say Now" Lives Of the Poets: __Manolis Anagnostakis_ by Yiorgos Chouliaras in Manolis Anagnostakis. Poetry and Politics, Silence and Agency in Post-War Greece, ed. Vangelis Calotychos, Rowman& Littlefield / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2012.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/91928913/Manolis-Anagnostakis-Poetry-and-Politics-Silence-and-Agency-in-Post-War-Greece

Conference "Ten Scholars Talk about Gringlish and Anagnostakis" at Columbia University, April 23, 2006, New York. Report by Vicki J. Yiannias

http://www.greeknewsonline.com/?p=4812



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