Princeton University, May 7, 2010
The Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University announces our second International Graduate Student Conference in Modern Greek Studies.
Submissions are invited from doctoral candidates in the final stages of their dissertation research who wish to present their work on any aspect or period of modern Greek history, society, and culture. Comparative or interdisciplinary approaches are welcome. Papers should be in English, and must not exceed 30 minutes.
Please submit abstracts of approximately 350 words no later than January 29, 2010. All Greek words should be transliterated. Each abstract should be accompanied by a cover letter, including (i) a curriculum vitae; (ii) a brief statement how the proposed paper connects with the dissertation-in-progress; (iii) the applicant's contact details (name, current affiliation, postal and e-mail addresses; tel. nos.); (iv) the names and e-mail addresses of two academic referees, the dissertation supervisor and one other person familiar with the candidate's current research.
Receipt of all submissions will be acknowledged, and the applicants will be notified by February 22, 2010, whether their submissions have been accepted. Participants will be expected to submit the full text of their papers by April 16, 2010. Papers will be precirculated among conference speakers, chairs, and respondents.
The Program in Hellenic Studies will cover the participants’ travel expenses to Princeton, and will offer shared (double-occupancy) accommodation (up to four nights), as well as meals on the days of the conference.
Submissions should be e-mailed to: hellenic@princeton.edu and nmarinid@princeton.edu (Submissions by fax or hard copy will not be accepted.)
Deadline: January 29, 2010
Program Committee
Elizabeth Davis (Anthropology and Hellenic Studies)
Dimitri Gondicas (Classics and Hellenic Studies)
Molly Greene (History and Hellenic Studies)
Savvas Kyriakidis (Hellenic Studies)
Thanassis Nikolentzos (Hellenic Studies)
Nikos Panou (Comparative Literature and Hellenic Studies)
Alexis Rappas (Hellenic Studies)
Katerina Rozakou (Hellenic Studies)
Secretary to the Committee: Nikos Marinides (History and Hellenic Studies)
In my recent translations, I’ve been trying to bring across some contemporary Greek voices that haven’t yet been adequately heard in English, but there are still many classics of Modern Greek literature that really deserve to be translated. One is I Papissa Ioanna (”Pope Joan”), by Emmanuel Roidis. First published in 1866, “Pope Joan” is a wickedly witty historical novel about the life of the legendary (and probably fictional) female pope of the 850s. The book, which also offers a stinging critique of the Greek Orthodox Church, was banned, and Roidis was excommunicated because of it. Lawrence Durrell published a version of the book in the 1950s, but it’s far shorter than Roidis’s Greek, and it would be wonderful to have a complete translation in English. I would also love to see strong translations of the works of the 16th-century Cretan playwright Georgios Chortatsis: the pastoral play Panoria, the tragedy Erofili, and the comedy Katzourbos. These plays are just wonderful, and should be of particular interest to scholars and readers of Renaissance works in English. There are also a whole host of fantastic books that already have been published in good English translations—but the translations are either out of print, or put out by small presses or academic presses with poor distribution. Two of my favorites are William Wyatt’s translation of the stories of Yiorgos Vizyenos, My Mother’s Sin and Other Stories. Vizyenos is a fascinating character, born in 1849 to a very poor family in Thrace, sent to apprentice to his uncle, a tailor in Constantinople; he went on to study child psychology in Leipzig and died in an insane asylum outside of Athens. There’s also the very important trilogy of novels by Stratis Tsirkas, set in Jerusalem, Cairo, and Alexandria during the period 1942-44, that were translated by Kay Cicellis and put out by Knopf in 1974 under a single cover, as Drifting Cities. It would be wonderful to see those re-released.
Karen Emmerich’s translation include I’d Like by Amanda Michalopoulou, Poems (1945-1971) by Miltos Sachtouris, and Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos, just out from Clockroot Books.
