In this lecture Ourania Katavouta will give an introduction to the history of Modern Greek Literature. She will talk briefly about the historical facts and the important literary works of a broad period, starting from the late Byzantine era (11th century), moving to the Ottoman Empire (1453), the Cretan Renaissance and the Hellenic Enlightenment till the Revolution of Independence in 1821, which led to the formation of the modern Greek state. In this broad historic period, what were the most representative literary works? Who were the most important poets, authors and scholars? Ourania Katavouta will begin with the first literary text written in modern Greek language, the epic poem of “Digenis Akritas” and later on she will present “Erotokritos”, the most popular romance in verse that was produced during the Cretan Renaissance. Then, she will give a brief account of the most important scholars of the Hellenic Enlightenment and she will finish with the poet Dionysios Solomos, whose poem “Hymn to the Liberty” became Greece’s national hymn.
Ourania Katavouta
Ourania Katavouta graduated from the Department of Greek Philology at the University of Patras. Later on she continued to her master and doctoral studies at the Department of Philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where in 2022 she obtained her PhD diploma in Modern Greek Literature. She has been teaching Modern Greek Language and Literature at the Department of Greek Studies in Shanghai International Studies University in China since 2014. In 2017, she was honored with the Magnolia Award (白玉兰纪念奖) by the Municipality of Shanghai for her exceptional contributions to the development of the city and the enhancement of the cooperation between Greece and China.
Ourania's research interests are centered around Modern Greek Literature, Teaching Greek as a Foreign Language, and Intercultural and Comparative Studies between China and Greece. She is also a published author of poems and articles related to literature and education. In 2019, her first poetry collection in Greek, titled Μπαλαρίνα μες στη νύχτα (Ballerina into the night), was published by Panoptikon.
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