Aris Marangopoulos
Encyclopedia
Aris Maragkopoulos is a Greek author, literary critic and translator. He studied History and Archeology at the University of Athens, History of Art and Archeology at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne.
He is one of the few modernist / postmodernist writers of prose in Greece and has been writing since the early eighties. Most of his novels deal with the Utopian idea of communal love as a means of civil disobedience and some of them include whole pages or, in some cases, whole chapters, written in an elective modernist style resembling a poème en prose. Vassilis Vassilikos
, author of the novel Z, has written for Maragkopoulos' political novel Obsession with Spring:
Maragkopoulos is considered an authority on James Joyce
in Greece. He has written three books and many articles on the matter. His most important study, Ulysses, A reader's guide is principally an attempt to explain James Joyce's Ulysses
through affinities to its Homeric counterpart, the Odyssey
, – affinities clearly exposed for the reader, in richly documented text. Exegetic suggestions in response to central issues of the Joycean critical literature are also seriously treated in the volume – documented as they are in a thorough textual and intertextual analysis of the original.
His Joycean studies have influenced his critical reading of Greek modern and contemporary prose: his writings over the years ask for a total re-mapping of the reception of literature in Greece.
----
He has served for two consecutive terms as Secretary Executive of the Hellenic Authors' Society.
His novel Love, Gardens, Ingratitude has been translated into Serbian, his Obsession with Spring into Turkish, his short novel Nostalgic Clone into English and various texts and articles into English, French, Turkish and Serbian.
He is one of the few modernist / postmodernist writers of prose in Greece and has been writing since the early eighties. Most of his novels deal with the Utopian idea of communal love as a means of civil disobedience and some of them include whole pages or, in some cases, whole chapters, written in an elective modernist style resembling a poème en prose. Vassilis Vassilikos
Vassilis Vassilikos
-Biography:A native of the northern Greek island of Thasos, Vassilikos grew up in Thessaloniki, graduating from law school there before moving to Athens to work as a journalist....
, author of the novel Z, has written for Maragkopoulos' political novel Obsession with Spring:
«It is the outcome of a difficult journey through the clashing rocks of James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
and Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, a fruitful journey that made him rediscover Honoré de BalzacHonoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
’s gold… A fantastic political thriller, an anatomy of the country we call Hellas, a novel that opens a wide discussion amid the reading community since it re-reads our recent history»
Maragkopoulos is considered an authority on James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
in Greece. He has written three books and many articles on the matter. His most important study, Ulysses, A reader's guide is principally an attempt to explain James Joyce's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
through affinities to its Homeric counterpart, the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, – affinities clearly exposed for the reader, in richly documented text. Exegetic suggestions in response to central issues of the Joycean critical literature are also seriously treated in the volume – documented as they are in a thorough textual and intertextual analysis of the original.
His Joycean studies have influenced his critical reading of Greek modern and contemporary prose: his writings over the years ask for a total re-mapping of the reception of literature in Greece.
----
He has served for two consecutive terms as Secretary Executive of the Hellenic Authors' Society.
His novel Love, Gardens, Ingratitude has been translated into Serbian, his Obsession with Spring into Turkish, his short novel Nostalgic Clone into English and various texts and articles into English, French, Turkish and Serbian.
Novels
- H μανία με την Άνοιξη (Obsession with Spring), Ellinika Grammata, 2006, Topos books 2009
- Αγάπη, Κήποι, Αχαριστία (Love, Gardens, Ingratitude), Kedros publishers 2002
- Οι ωραίες ημέρες του Βενιαμίν Σανιδόπουλου (Beautiful days of Benjamin Sanidopoulos), Kedros publishers 1998
- Oldsmobile, Eleutheros Typos, 1982
Novellae
- True Love, Topos books, 2008
- Τα δεδομένα της ζωής μας (The Facts of our Lives), Ellinika Grammata, 2002
Short stories
- Γλυκειά Επιστροφή (Sweet Come back), Ellinika Grammata, 2003
- Δεν είναι όλα σινεμά μωρό μου (This is no cinema, baby), Eleutheros Typos, 1985
- Ψυχομπουρδέλο (Psycho-brothel), Eleutheros Typos, 1983
Selected essays
- Ulysses, Οδηγός Ανάγνωσης (Ulysses, a Reader's Guide), Delfini 1996, Kedros publishers 2001, Topos books 2010
- Διαφθορείς, Εραστές, Παραβάτες (Seducers, Lovers, Transgressors), Ellinika Grammata, 2005
Illustrated books
- Η άλλη Ελλάδα: 1950-1965 (Unknown Greece: 1950-1965, based on the photo archive of K. Megalokonomou), Topos books 2007
- Ρωσία: 100 χρόνια (Russia: 100 years), Stavros Niarchos institution, Rizareion institution, 2002
- Αγαπημένο Βρωμοδουβλίνο: Τόποι και Γλώσσες στον Οδυσσέα του Τζέιμς Τζόις (Dear Dirty Dublin: The Scene and the Language in Joyce's Ulysses), Kedros publishers, 1997
Selected translations
Note: dates given are of the first publication of the Greek translation- Swift, JonathanJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
, Τα ταξίδια του Γκάλιβερ (Gulliver's TravelsGulliver's TravelsTravels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
), 1996 - Defoe, William, Ροβινσώνας Κρούσος (Robinson CrusoeRobinson CrusoeRobinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
), 1997 - Joyce, JamesJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, Τζιάκομο Τζόις (Giacomo JoyceGiacomo JoyceGiacomo Joyce is a posthumously-published work by Irish author James Joyce. It was published by Faber and Faber from sixteen handwritten pages by Joyce...
), 1994 - James, HenryHenry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, Πλατεία Ουάσιγκτον (Washington SquareWashington Square (novel)Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father...
), 1997 - Balzac, Honoré deHonoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
, Σαραζίνος (SarrasineSarrasineSarrasine is a novella written by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1830 , and is part of his Comédie Humaine.-Commentary:...
), 1999 - Duras, MargueriteMarguerite DurasMarguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.-Background:...
, Moderato Cantabile (Moderato CantabileModerato CantabileModerato Cantabile is a novel by Marguerite Duras. It was very popular, selling half a million copies and being the initial source of Duras's fame.-Plot:...
), 1991