Aglaia (Liana) Giannakopoulou
Visiting Fellow, Spring 2024
- AffiliationUniversity of CambridgeResearch Project:Ancient Greek Myth in the Poetry of Zoe Karelli: The Figure of Eurydice
Dr. Liana Giannakopoulou teaches Modern Greek Literature and Film in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics of the University of Cambridge. She is the author of The Power of Pygmalion. Ancient Greek Sculpture in Modern Greek Poetry (Peter Lang) and of The Parthenon in Poetry. An Anthology (in Greek, ELIA/MIET). She has also co-edited Culture and Society in Crete. From Kornaros to Kazantzakis (Cambridge Scholars), a selection of papers presented at the international conference that she co-organized in Cambridge. She has published extensively on the poetry of major modern Greek writers (Anghelaki-Rooke, Seferis, Cavafy, Ritsos, Kyrtzaki and Engonopoulos among others) and has promoted modern Greek poetry in public events at the British Museum, in Cambridge and at the Hellenic Centre in London. Her current research project focuses on the use of myth in the work of modern Greek women poets. She has been the Chair of the Society for Modern Greek Studies and continues to be a member of its Executive Committee.
About the Research Project
Ancient Greek Myth in the Poetry of Zoe Karelli: The Figure of Eurydice
My research project is part of my ongoing research on modern Greek women poets and their complex relationship with ancient Greek myth. It focuses on the work of the pioneering poet, Zoe Karelli (1901-1998) and her appropriation and revision of the figure of Eurydice. Though the figure of Eurydice Karelli explores female identity and in particular issues relating to creativity, existential anxiety, sexuality and the relationship with a patriarchal society. My research at Princeton (including archives in the Special Collections) has allowed me to assess the relationship of Karelli’s use of myth with Existentialism and understand both her engagement with and differences from it. On the other hand, not only have I explored Karelli’s dialogue with ancient sources (Virgil, Ovid); I have also been able to expand the web of her intertextual dialogue to include Rilke, H. D. and Tsvetaeva. As anticipated, the re-writing of the myth of Eurydice aligns Karelli with major writers and places her poetry at the heart of crucial philosophical discussions on female embodiment and the relationship between body and mind or spirit and matter.