This paper examines the literary theme of the «Journey to Kythera» in 19th and 20th century Greek prose, which originated in the Western artistic tradition. Studying the relevant passages of the novels and short stories, Dora Mendi distinguishes five distinct approaches to the symbolic place of Kythera: a) dramatic erotic emotion (Alexandros Soutsos) b) ironic distancing from erotic symbolism (Alkiviadis Giannopoulos, M. Karagatsis) c) escape from everyday life (Prodromos Markoglou) d) autobiographical experience (George Yatromanolakis) e) science fiction (George Zarkadakis).
Biography
Dora Mendi was born in 1966 in Kythera. She graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and holds a PhD in Modern Greek Philology from the University of Ioannina. She teaches Modern Greek Literature at the Department of Philology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens and at the Hellenic Open University.
