273-294

Kavafy’s “tragic” poems as exercises oh theatrical style : essay on the origins of Kavaiy’s theatricality

Μελέτες και άρθρα

• Πατρικίου, Έλενα

The relation between Kavafy’s poetry and theater has been pointed out quite early, although, surprisingly, his famous “theatricality” has never been rigorously determined by his critics. Therefore, this essay is an attempt to investigate Kavafy’s debts to ancient dramas and “recreate” or adapt a tragic atmosphere. These poems, most of them unfinished or unpublished by the poet himself, suggest that tragedy fascinated but, at the same time, somehow repelled Kavafy, seemingly due to his inability to reconcile the pompous interpretations (theoretical as well as theatrical) of the ancient drama that prevailed by the late 19th century, with his own ideas of the ancient Greek culture. On the other hand, it seems that in his struggle to liberate his own poetry from the pre-modernistic conventions, the “fragmentariness” of the tragic form, as it has sometimes been transmitted, gave him a sort of a model consecrated by tradition.Some other elements, typical of Kavafy’s mature period, like the ironic reversals or “we”, seem to have been influenced by the tragic irony and the discourse of the ancient chorus respectively. Finally, one must note the fact that Kavafy is perhaps the only European poet who, in his attempts to use tragic dramas as a source of inspiration, hasn’t been trapped in the tragic myth; the only one that has never tried to re-elaborate the tragic plots or the tragic characters, and has never used them as symbols denoting eternal truths. His main interest in tragedy is its poetics, its devises and its techniques, and in that sense he didn’t hesitate to let himself be influenced by his ancient fellow masters.

• Languages and Literature
• History and Archaeology

• Λογοτεχνία
• Θέατρο, Ελληνικό

ποίηση

Μία πρώτη προσέγγιση του θέματος είχε τήν ευκαιρία νά παρουσιάσει η Έλενα Πατρικίου στο 2° Συνέδριο για τόν Καβάφη πού όργάνωσε ο μακαριστός Κωστής Μοσκώφ στήν ’Αλεξάνδρεια, τον 'Οκτώβριο τού 1991. Τό έπεξεργάστηκα έκ νέου όταν τό παρουσίασα, προσκεκλημένη άπό τόν καθηγητή Άλέξη Πολίτη στό μεταπτυχιακό σεμινάριο Νέων Ελληνικών τής Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Κρήτης, στό Ρέθυμνο, τήν άνοιξη του 1992. Τό παρόν κείμενο άποτελεί πλέον μία πολύ επεξεργασμένη μορφή τής πρώτης άνακοίνωσης καί μέρος ενός πολύ μεγαλύτερου κειμένου γιά τήν έπίδραση του θεάτρου στήν ποίηση του Καβάφη, πού έλπίζω νά δημοσιευτεί σύντομα.