43-54

• Gourgouris, Stathis

This essay poses certain theoretical questions regarding the curious (but substantially evident) phenomenon of many of twentieth- century’s most experimental poets being avowed (albeit maverick) communists. The first part of the essay suggests a series of dialectical questions for further examination, built on a constitutive antagonism between the desire to control historical knowledge and the poetic daring to invent the historical horizon. The second part of the essay pursues, as a way of illustration, a comparative reading of two poems by Ritsos and Alexandrou.

• Languages and Literature

• Λογοτεχνία
• Communism and art

ποίηση

This is more or less the intact text of a paper presented in the Modern Greek Studies Association Symposium at Princeton University on November 4, 1999