|
An Annotated Bibliography of
Plays Translated and Essays Written from 1824 to 1994 by Stratos
Constantinidis |
Copyright © 1996 by The Johns Hopkins University Press. All rights reserved.
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permission from
the JHU Press. Journal of Modern Greek Studies 14.1 (1996)
Preface
Modern Greek drama has been performed and discussed in
several European languages. This bibliography lists translated plays and
original essays that appeared only in English. Therefore, the 182 entries that
follow represent only a small sample of artistry and scholarship.
I compiled this bibliography in order to guide beginning students of Greek
theater who are not fluent in modern Greek. Modern Greek theater has been
victimized by brief, sweeping generalizations in introductory surveys that
beginning students find in encyclopedias and in general histories of Greek
literature. These surveys, which discourage the further study of modern Greek
theater by underrating its significance, inadvertently expose the limitations
of their authors.
For example, Myron Matlaw boldly--and, to a certain extent, unjustly--claims
that "Greek drama in modern times hardly reflects the glories of its golden
age" (Modern World Drama: An Encyclopedia 1972:318). Likewise, but more
tactfully, Rae Dalven concludes that modern Greek theater is making an
enormous contribution to world drama through the many revivals of classical
Greek drama in translation, the production of countless foreign plays in
translation, and the production of an "abundance" of original [modern] Greek
plays (The Readers' Encyclopedia of World Drama 1969:400). This cajoling
"abundance" of original modern Greek plays, however, misconstrues the
production record of modern Greek drama in the 1960s and earlier.
A deprecating attitude toward modern Greek drama and scholarship is also
shared by widely used texts such as Constantine Dimaras's A History of Modern
Greek Literature (1972), Linos Politis's A History of Modern Greek Literature
(1973), and Roderick Beaton's An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature
(1994). The above popular histories share, in addition, a literary bias: they
neglect the performance side of theater and give dramatic literature and
scholarship only a cursory mention. However, a fair amount of modern Greek
dramatic literature, performances, and scholarship is not second rate. Of
course, modern Greek drama and theater have not yet benefited,
internationally, from as systematic, extensive, or detailed an analysis as
that accorded classical Greek drama and theater.
I offer my brief comments below with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I know
how presumptuous it is to attempt to describe or evaluate in ten-line
annotations plays such as Kostis Palamas's controversial Trisévyeni or the
books of prolific scholars, such as Linda Myrsiades, whose work has not yet
been fully discussed. On the other hand, I am aware of how indispensable a
bibliographical guide can be for a more analytical and, one hopes, revisionist
study of modern Greek theater.
Contents
Dramatic Literature ( 1 of 1 )
Dramatic Theory , Criticism and Theater History A - G ( 1 of 3 )
Dramatic Theory , Criticism and Theatre History H - N ( 2 of 3 )
Dramatic Theory , Criticism and Theatre History P - Z ( 3 of 3 )
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