News

By Nikos Vatopoulos, KATHIMERINI 28/04/2012 A biography that is a pleasure to read and offers a wealth of information as well as inspiration for further reading, is the work of the academic Konstantinos Svolopoulos, who has published his study on Konstantinos Karamanlis in Greek. It is a formidable challenge to present a political biography of a man of K. Karamanlis’s stature in just 250 pages, but it is precisely this density of expression that lends the reading vigour and intensity.It is a classic biography, that is to say, one that begins with his birth and ends with his death. If anything characterises historian Konstantinos Svolopoulos’s work above all else, it is his adoption of scientific methodology, which excludes the mediation of hindsight and adheres to the narrative of historical time.Of course, Konstantinos Svolopoulos is a man who knew Karamanlis personally and is himself the founder and, since then, general director of the Konstantinos Karamanlis Foundation. The reader can detect between the lines a certain ‘warmth’ of familiarity with the man and an understanding of his environment. However, one cannot say that there is any subjectivity. What is of particular interest is the emphasis K. Svolopoulos places on the wider context.I particularly liked the many references to the Macedonian issue, which is also linked to Karamanlis’s childhood experiences (let us not forget that when he was born, in 1907, Macedonia still belonged to the Ottoman Empire), his early years in Athens in the 1930s as a young lawyer, the analysis of his character, his asceticism and his obsession with ideals, his need to serve, his belief in political stability, and his ambition in the 1950s to lift Greece out of underdevelopment and anchor it to Western Europe. The narrative reaches its conclusion. It is interesting that K. Svolopoulos emphasises Karamanlis’s study of the ancient Greeks, from whom he was influenced on fundamental issues of political philosophy. This occurred mainly after 1963 and during his years in Paris. Karamanlis believed that Greece might not be able to compare with the wealthy countries in terms of economic size, but that it was fully competitive in terms of its culture. It is telling that, during Karamanlis’s first term, Pikionis was commissioned to redesign the area around the Acropolis. The transition to democracy, accession to the then EEC and the period of the presidency are also analysed, as are relations with A. Papandreou. One has everything to gain from reading this book. Konstantinos Svolopoulos, ‘Karamanlis, 1907–1998. A Political Biography’

By Mikela Chartoulari, Vivliodromio, 7 April 2012«Instead of herding all these people into concentration camps, it would be worth spending man-hours to see how... Dimitris Nollas strongly disagrees, as he told me, with the government’s plan for migrant detention centres. He is one of the first modern Greek writers to have given a leading role in his short stories and novels to these ‘others’ who, for twenty years now, have been flooding into our country to save themselves and their loved ones who have remained beyond the Murgana or in the depths of Asia and Africa. His perspective bears the mark of Christian love, yet his approach is neither romantic nor naive. For Nollas knows how complex the issue of relations between modern Greeks and foreigners is, but he also knows how the issue was dealt with in previous phases of Greek history (‘we have always assimilated the hordes from the East’). And he has seen how multi-ethnic societies can function in the West. That is why he never uses the term ‘illegal immigrants’. They can assimilate them. The only solution to the immigration issue is to grant them citizenship. ‘Foreigners have a better chance of becoming true Greeks than various political opportunists who speak Greek.’ His new book, therefore, is particularly timely: it comprises ten short stories from the last eight years and is titled ‘In the Land’ (published by Ikaros), in which four stories depict the difficult coexistence of locals and foreigners, who struggle whilst the prevailing atmosphere poisons them. The harshest, ‘The Price of Dreams’, transports us to the courtyard of a temporary refugee camp, set up in a dilapidated building next to the rubbish tip, where we witness something akin to a rehearsal for the lynching of a pedlar. A gentle but broken figure, he was laying out his wares outside, cheap perfumes and cosmetics which he sold by the bottle, and only little Asmat, who could not afford to buy anything, spoke to him – a gesture which her mother, however, misinterpreted. So, when he stroked her head and gave her a small gift, her family flew into a rage and beat him to a pulp. Until two bored policemen arrived and rushed to close the case by shifting the blame onto the street vendor’s licence... Things aren’t black and white, Nollas tells us here, and he invites us to reflect on how poverty and shattered hopes affect human relationships.In his other stories, Rolando or Roules teaches a lesson in solidarity to the Greek man who gave him a synthesiser so he could play music and share the pennies he earns. The second-generation Turkish immigrant in Germany throws his German wife out of the window, feeling humiliated because she has cheated on him. And the dark-skinned foreign worker on the island feels unable to accept the proposal of the scorned young widow to stay together. Why all this? Because for a modern society to function, it must assimilate foreign value systems as well; yet these are not matters that can be settled wholesale and impersonally, through laws... ‘Politicians, however, are wasting time while eyeing the funds. But local communities will overturn their plans.” Ultimately, this book contains ideological and philosophical views that reflect the image presented by Greek society in the wake of the Olympic Games. In the recent short story ‘Inevitable Encounters’, for example, Nollas tells us of three friends who meet again after years apart, prompted by an old deception, and notes: ‘When you have lived a life without ever lending or borrowing, a life without give and take with others, a life without love; when you have never learnt this, how can you now take on the burden of another?’ In the equally new ‘A Loaf of Bread in Two’, where a long-unmarried, beloved couple living in poverty discuss a lost inheritance, he writes: “Setbacks, something that can turn into a disaster, bear witness to a life that is vibrant and ever fresh; they can be the catalyst, an opportunity for change.”Thus, by focusing on our relationship with the other or their ghost, this collection of short stories captures the resignation but also the will to live of today’s Greeks, the greed but also the solidarity, and above all the confusion that pervades a society emerging from a period of lawlessness where people had become wolves. The only lifeline for this situation, his stories suggest, is love for one’s neighbour (…‘and not for the idea of the neighbour’). ‘‘I belong to the party of those mad with freedom,’ comments Nollas. ‘Because I have learnt the “Grand Inquisitor” from “The Brothers Karamazov” by heart, and I know that if you accept compromises and make concessions, you open the door to totalitarianism. That is what happened in the 1980s when this society traded its vote and its tolerance for material goods…". A writer who has delved into the story of the Polytechnic generation or terrorism, the Nollas of today has turned his back on parties and politicians. And whilst he admits to having voted for ‘everything except the Far Right and PASOK’, he now prefers to declare himself ready to fight not for revolutionary utopias but for constants (language, nation), as the title of his book also suggests. And as an example of grassroots social policy, he acknowledges the Church’s work with soup kitchens, solidarity and its comforting activities. ‘Of course we must be in Europe and change many things, but if the Greek people are to be wiped out, well, no! Dimitris Nollas’s book *In the Land* will be published by Ikaros after the Easter holidays.

An example of the rigorous application of scientific methodology By Evanthis Hatzivassiliou* It is an open secret that, as a form of historical study, the biography causes waves of panic in Greek academia, if not in society: it is usually treated as a politically motivated form of discourse, and therefore biased or at least suspect. Other objections are raised, however: it is argued that individuals do not play a pivotal role in history, in the face of the great, impersonal economic forces; an argument that is also political, reflecting a left-leaning dogmatism.This panic takes on even more peculiar forms when the figure of Constantine Karamanlis is discussed. Bizarre, because in Karamanlis’s case it is not the scholars sympathetic to him who display anxiety: they appear far more certain of the correctness of their interpretations. On the contrary, the panic is evident among those who seek to cast doubt on this particular historical figure: it is they who are discontented, because they cannot do what they want, namely to diminish his contribution. This is one of those cases where the anxiety of pre-judgement becomes so obvious that it becomes amusing.Konstantinos Svolopoulos’s project is intended to mark a turning point in the development of Greek scholarship, primarily because it offers a model of the rigorous application of scientific methodology to a field as difficult and as slippery as biography. It is based on the findings of one of the most significant methodological works in world historiography: the work by Renouvin and Duroselle, which is divided into two volumes, one on the ‘deeper forces’ (which Svolopoulos has translated into Greek) and one on the political figure (homme d’état). This solid theoretical grounding enables the author to assess the figure and the era dynamically, whilst avoiding the unscientific excesses to which either the simplistic tendency towards deification (on the one hand) or, on the other, a shallow emphasis on trivialities.Reality: The examination of Karamanlis’s life and work involves not only the verification of the objective facts dictated by reality and the international context, but also of subjective elements that characterised the Macedonian politician throughout his life: the austerity of his personal style, the creativity stemming from a deep sense of mission, the capacity for clear thinking even at the height of a crisis. Finally, his insistence on prudence: Karamanlis was not a ‘player’ – says Svolopoulos – but in the Greece of his time, did he need to be? On the contrary, he was called upon to project a sense of Greek stability, which was a prerequisite for the fulfilment of his goals. And his steadfast commitment to these goals (development, democracy, Europe) demonstrates the coherence of his historical trajectory. I have a feeling that the reader will consider the most ‘bold’ section of the book to be the one dealing with the period after 1980. There, Svolopoulos offers a first historical – that is, source-based – interpretation of the 1980s (and the ‘cohabitation’ with A. Papandreou), as well as of the personal dimension (lifestyle, habits, psychological tendencies of Karamanlis). These are topics that have not yet been dealt with in detail. However, the value of the work lies not only in the facts it presents, the assessments it puts forward, or even in the effervescent and charming style of the writing. It lies, first and foremost, in the fact that it shows us how a historian thinks and writes, one who knows his subject so deeply that he is free from the anxiety of ‘justification’ or ‘condemnation’. The success of the project is based on sobriety and calm, which are themselves the fruits of two fundamental prerequisites of the historical science: knowledge and integrity.* Mr Evanthis Hatzivassiliou is an associate professor in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Athens. Published in Kathimerini, 11/03/2012

In December 2011, we published a post about ‘The Dewdrop’, a children’s story by Antonis Dimitrakopoulos, illustrated by Ersi Spathopoulou, which is due to be published shortly by Ikaros. It remains one of the blog’s most popular posts to this day. Today, we are delighted to present the cover to you!The dewdrop wanders through the clouds, the rivers, the lakes and the flowers, searching for an answer to her question: Do you know my name?A tender story for children of all ages.