Discover Ionian Islands : Literature

Wherever you look in the literary history of the Ionian Islands, there is a feeling of lost paradise, a nostalgia that can also be happy. Perhaps it is because they have sheltered the love of Poseidon and the nereid Amphitrite, or because they have witnessed the interminable wait of Penelope who ruled over Ithaca in the absence of her husband and king Odysseus? Perhaps it was because they saw the birth and growth of the future author of a sublime passion that was also marked by an intense melancholy in the face of the impossibility of making it last, or because they gave two brothers, writers in the making, a sublimated childhood and late adolescence, territories that, by definition, can only grow further away every day. From mythology to epic, from Albert Cohen to Lawrence and Gerald Durrell, the archipelago spread over three seas keeps the beauty of legends and the strength of memory.

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Myths and realities

Man likes to look for reality in fiction and the voyage of Ulysses described by Homer in theOdyssey has given rise to many geographical interpretations. Whatever the case, and even if Ithaca is in fact Cephalonia, another of the Ionian islands, as some historians suggest, the archipelago still seems to be the point of departure - and the point of arrival! - of the famous mythical hero. His epic has, in any case, proved decisive for world literature because it is one of the pillars, it marks the passage from oral tradition to written transcription. The "Homeric question" has also occupied the minds since the eighteenth century. But if the blind poet has, finally, neither really existed nor lived in the eighth century BC, it is still associated with a place of birth - most often Smyrna - located on the Ionian coast that we must be careful not to confuse with the eponymous islands, the first finding place in modern Turkey, while the second dotted the western Greece. The life of another poetess, Sappho, born in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos in the seventh or sixth century BC, seems less questionable, although her biography is just as fragmentary. According to Menander (playwright of the IVth century BC) who puts her in scene in his play Leukadia, it is in Leucade that she would have found the death, jumping of a cliff while pursuing her lover. The place and the memories preserved the memory of this fall in love, involving dangerous tradition and artistic leitmotiv. Literature, for its part, has kept track of the poetic work of Sappho, even if only her Hymn to Aphrodite has reached us in its entirety.
It is then a temporal leap that we must take to meet Nicolas Voulgaris, a scholar born in 1634 in Corfu, a city that will welcome him in its literary academy for his writings, mainly religious. He will thus write offices in honor of Saint Jason and Saint Sosipatre, who had evangelized the island in the first century, and will work on a report of the transfer of the relics of Saint Spydridon to Constantinople, celebrating the ancient bishop who became patron of Corfu. The family tree that links him to Eugene (born in 1716) keeps its secrets but the descent is honorably assured by the one who will become the worthy representative of the Corfu Spirit of Enlightenment. Eugène Voulgaris indeed left an eclectic and abundant work (philosophical or mathematical treatises, correspondence and poems), and his immoderate taste for travels led him to leave his mark on all the territories where he lived, up to distant Russia where he ended his days in 1806.

A detour to Zante

After Corfu, it is Zante that the literature honors of its gifts, it sees thus being born successively Nicolas Chiefala (about 1770 - towards 1850), Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827), Andreas Calvos (1792-1869), Dionysios Solomós (1798-1857) and Elizabeth Moutzan-Martinegou (1801-1832). If the first became a sailor - and a fighter at the time of independence - before taking up the pen to tell of his many travels, all his successors made their mark in letters. Thus, Ugo Foscolo - whose name and nationality recall that the island was then under Venetian domination - composed Odes to Luigia Pallavicini while polishing his epistolary novel Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis. Although he was interested in politics, he was one of the Italian precursors of Romanticism, a legendary destiny that was not contradicted by his last years, when he went underground in London to escape his creditors before succumbing to tuberculosis, nor by the fact that his remains were repatriated to Florence, 44 years after his death, to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce, the "Italian Pantheon. Before that, his secretary was a fellow countryman, Andreas Calvos, who was just as whimsical in his life, and just as innovative in his style. He is indeed recognized as one of the great initiators of modern poetry because he knew how to free himself from the straitjacket of the rhymes and from the one of the ancient metric, notably in his collection Elpis Patridos and in his new Odes. Another national poet venerated in the mausoleum of Zante which is dedicated to them, Dionysios Solomos is son of his time: he will write in Italian his Rime improvvisate but in Greek his Hymn to Freedom and his unclassifiable The Woman of Zante to be obtained in bilingual edition to the beautiful editions Le Bruit du temps. Finally, Elizabeth Moutzan-Martinegou will find, in her desire to write thwarted by her parents who wanted to marry her, a source of inspiration for her feminist writings. She died at the age of 31, two weeks after her first childbirth, and had just enough time to produce about twenty plays and to compose some poems.

Exiles and immigrants

Aristotélis Valaorítis was born in 1824 on the island of Lefkada and it is perhaps from the illustrious philosopher from whom he takes his first name that he inherits a strong inclination for politics that will make him a member of parliament. Epic in his time, he will also be in his poetry, but when he will know the disappointment of international decisions, it is the way of withdrawal that he will choose by settling on a tiny confetti, Madourí, to devote himself to his art. In contrast, his compatriot Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) chose very early to travel the world. Son of a Greek mother and an Irish father, he died Japanese after taking the nationality of his last stop. Although he wrote about islands other than Lefkada, where he was born, his texts can still be discovered with delight in French(Lettres japonaises published by Pocket, Insectes published by Editions du Sonneur, Chita published by Gallimard, etc.).
The year 1900 saw Albert Cohen leave Corfu for Marseilles when he was only 5 years old. Three novels of his famous tetralogy (which includes the unmissable Belle du Seigneur) are partly set in Cephalonia: Solal, Mangeclous and Les Valeureux (Folio editions). Grand Prix de l'Académie française, he is undoubtedly one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, and it is in Geneva that he will die in 1981, finally giving in to the death that had long pursued him. Finally, two brothers have certainly given to Corfu their most beautiful pages, thanking the island that had welcomed them with their family, at 24 years for the eldest - Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990), the author of In the shadow of the Greek sun (Quinzaine littéraire), Greek Islands (Bartillat) and, on another theme, of the Quartet of Alexandria (Le Livre de poche) -, to 10 years for the youngest - Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) - future distinguished naturalist, who will deliver in his Trilogy of Corfu (editions of the Round Table) his tender memories of this blessed time.

Top 10: Lecture

The literature of Corfu

What can you expect in the Ionian Islands, except to meet Ulysses, king of Ithaca, who is leaving for his Odyssey? And yet, the archipelago has also seen the birth of Albert Cohen who was inspired by it, the growth of Gerald Durrell who kept the nostalgia, and the burning of the very realist Constantine Theotokis who drew a harsh portrait. As many books as journeys!

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The Ulysses soap opera

In 100 episodes, the epic of the king of Ithaca and, as a bonus, a CD of the story read by the author. From 9 years old. Murielle Szac, published by Bayard Jeunesse.

The Ultimate Goddess

One of the most famous works of the poet born in Zante in 1778, or the beginnings of the Italian Romantic movement. Ugo Foscolo, published by La Différence.

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The Woman from Zante

The story of the siege of Missolonghi by the Turkish army through the eyes of the poet, in a superb version in French and Greek. Dionysios Solomos, published by Le Bruit du temps.

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Solal

The eponymous hero is only 16 years old when, on Cephalonia, his native island, he seduces the wife of the French consul. And so begins a mythical story. Albert Cohen, Folio editions.

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Penelope, the woman of a thousand tricks

What would Odysseus be without Penelope, who ruled Ithaca in his absence and rejected all his suitors? From 10 years old, Isabelle Pandazopoulos, published by Gallimard-Jeunesse.

The Corfu Trilogy

It is undoubtedly from his youth in Corfu that the future writer and naturalist took a passion for nature. Sweet and touching. Gerald Durrell, published by La Table ronde.

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At the table with Albert Cohen

Or how to learn about Sephardic cooking in 40 recipes, following the steps of the writer from Corfu to Marseille. Henri Béhar, published by Non lieu.

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Life and death of Karavélas

Born in Corfu in 1872, Theotokis is one of the first to introduce realism in Greek literature, and he does so without concessions. Constantin Theotokis, Cambourakis editions.

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Kalimera

An intimate and privileged discovery of Greece and its islands, a country where the author has wandered for forty years. Nicole Tartacap, Transboréal editions.

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The Mandolin of Captain Corelli

1939, Cephalonia. Pelagia loves Mandras who loves her in return and wants to marry her, but obstacles arise before them. Louis de Bernières, Folio editions.

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