Building upon C.P. Cavafy’s overall poetics with which the existing scholarship has dealt, this dissertation attempts to further define the Alexandrian poet’s art of making poetry by locating its ever-increasing global appeal in the notion of the “fragment” as a performance genre. The concept of the fragment repositions and redefines Cavafy’s poetry as a text that “does things” and as a result, it opens the gateway to performativity. Thus, through fragmentation Cavafy’s poems cease to be proper texts and are endowed with the potential of political acts. The interaction of poetry with music is indeed the key to understanding the fluidity of the Cavafean poetry and its subsequent undeniable appeal worldwide, which the interaction of poetry with music makes visible. Viewed as a sonorous envelope, a fantasy space, a psychotextual discourse or an activity based upon musico-textual mechanisms, music opens the way to being viewed as a socio-cultural site of subjectivity formation that ignores all kinds of boundaries, both temporal and spatial. This dissertation thus argues for a sui generis Cavafean poetics of fragmentation in both thematic and stylistic terms that allows for ample experimentation and freedom not only on the poet’s behalf, but also in terms of its reception. Moreover, this project further tests the validity of such an argument at the intersection of poetry and music when one fuses into another in the form of the art song. By scrutinizing how Cavafy’s poetry has been put into music by various composers by means of a variety of approaches, including music analysis (e.g., melodic, harmonic, textural, semiotic, music psychology), psychoanalysis, and cultural theory, it aims to shape a “map” of various musical receptions of such a highly fragmented oeuvre as the Cavafean. To this end, it focuses on several case studies of music renditions ranging from that of the composer Dimitri Mitropoulos during the days of High Modernism (publicly presented in 1927 in Athens, Greece) through Peter Schat’s For Lenny at 70 (for tenor and piano, 1988), Lou Harrison’s Scenes from Cavafy (a work composed for gamelan orchestra, 1992), Yannis Papaioannou’s The Funeral of Sarpedon (2000), Ned Rorem’s Another Sleep: Waiting for the Barbarians (2002) and John Tavener’s Tribute to Cavafy (first performed in 2005 at Birmingham, UK), to the contemporary composer Kostas Rekleitis’ Cavafy Cycle (2012). By entering the deep, almost invisible territories where one art fuses with another, this thesis aspires to contribute to a better understanding of such a complex poetry as the Cavafean one, by offering a fresh perspective and mode of investigation onto an overlooked dimension of Cavafy’s work. It thus ultimately calls for a renewed interest for further interdisciplinary explorations, not only in the reception of Cavafy in music, but also of Cavafy in more complex artistic settings and forms, especially, that of performance.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / The poems of The Stratofortress include adaptations into English of two Greek poets: Sappho, circa 650 BCE, whose poems were composed in the Ancient Greek dialect of her birthplace, the island of Lesbos, Greece; and Constantine P. Cavafy, who lived from April 29, 1863 to April 29, 1933, wrote his poems in Modern Greek, and lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. My adaptations of Sappho’s fragments from the Ancient Greek are presented as songs, and numbered according to the standardized textual organization of the most reliable and commonly referenced scholarly editions of her fragmentary compositions (Lobell and Page, D.A. Campbell, E. Voigt, G. Nagy, D. Yatromanolakis). / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

No description available.

The present thesis examines the way E.M. Forster, Lawrence Durrell, W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Joseph Brodsky, and James Merrill appropriated C.P. Cavafy in writings that were disseminated and consumed amongst culturally dominant literary circles, and which eventually determined the Greek-Alexandrian poet’s international reputation. I aim to contribute a new perspective on Cavafy, by evading the text-based tradition of reception studies, and proposing an alternative method of discussing the production of Cavafy's canonical status. Inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's sociological theory, I view literary canonization as involving a variety of factors at play beyond creative achievement: in particular, relationships of 'authorial consecration' whereby writers create and circulate cultural capital through their power to legitimize other artists. The critical and fictional texts I analyse perform readings of Cavafy's poetry alongside imaginative portrayals of the poet's life and personality. I take this complementary relationship - between the image of the poet each author projects and their reading of his work - as a starting point to explore the broader ideas of aesthetics and authorial subjectivity that inform the renderings of Cavafy generated by prominent literary figures. Rather than passive recipients of influence, these figures are considered as active agents in the production of 'Cavafy narratives', appropriating the poet according to their own agendas, while also projecting onto him their own position within the cultural field. Eventually, Cavafy becomes a point of insight into the multiplicity of networks and practices involved in the production of cultural currency; in turn, the study of the construction of Cavafy's authorial identity sheds light on the cumulative processes that have defined the way the poet is read and perceived to the present day. This duality of perspective is essential to a study concerned with the cultural contexts framing the poet's steady rise to international fame throughout the 20th century.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Le mythe du retour dans la poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle La poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle est imprégnée d’un recyclage des formes et des figures d’expression de la mythologie classique grecque. Ce recyclage, tel que pratiqué par des poètes comme Cavafy, Séféris et Elytis, se manifeste et s’articule dans le phénomène du mythe du retour, phénomène qui évolue sous quatre aspects distincts : le mythe (l’histoire) du retour, le retour au mythe, le retour du mythe et le mythe (l’illusion) du retour. La première manifestation de ce mythe du retour s’initie dans un renvoi à l’histoire homérique de l’archétype odysséen. En deuxième lieu s’élabore le retour au mythe, c’est-à-dire le recyclage du mythe dans un cadre idéologique et poétique. Ensuite se façonne un retour du mythe, par lequel la mythologie initiale du retour revient comme un concept où se métaphorise une forme d’expression première. Enfin se conscientise le mythe du retour, où le mythe n’est plus histoire, mais devient illusion. / The Μyth of the Return in 20th Century Neo-Hellenic Poetry The Neo-Hellenic poetry of the 20th century is permeated by a recycling of the forms and figures of speech found in classical Greek mythology. This recycling, as practiced by poets such as Cavafy, Seferis and Elytis, is expressed and articulated in the phenomenon of the myth of the return, which evolves on four distinct planes: the myth (story) of the return, the return to the myth, the return of the myth and the myth (illusion) of the return. The first manifestation of this myth of the return is the Homeric story of the Odyssean archetype. Secondly is expressed the return to the myth into a recycled ideological and poetic form. Thereafter is shaped the return of the myth, through which the initial mythology of the return occurs as a concept that enables a primary form of expression. Finally is transcended the myth of the return, which is no longer only story, but illusion.

Le mythe du retour dans la poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle La poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle est imprégnée d’un recyclage des formes et des figures d’expression de la mythologie classique grecque. Ce recyclage, tel que pratiqué par des poètes comme Cavafy, Séféris et Elytis, se manifeste et s’articule dans le phénomène du mythe du retour, phénomène qui évolue sous quatre aspects distincts : le mythe (l’histoire) du retour, le retour au mythe, le retour du mythe et le mythe (l’illusion) du retour. La première manifestation de ce mythe du retour s’initie dans un renvoi à l’histoire homérique de l’archétype odysséen. En deuxième lieu s’élabore le retour au mythe, c’est-à-dire le recyclage du mythe dans un cadre idéologique et poétique. Ensuite se façonne un retour du mythe, par lequel la mythologie initiale du retour revient comme un concept où se métaphorise une forme d’expression première. Enfin se conscientise le mythe du retour, où le mythe n’est plus histoire, mais devient illusion. / The Μyth of the Return in 20th Century Neo-Hellenic Poetry The Neo-Hellenic poetry of the 20th century is permeated by a recycling of the forms and figures of speech found in classical Greek mythology. This recycling, as practiced by poets such as Cavafy, Seferis and Elytis, is expressed and articulated in the phenomenon of the myth of the return, which evolves on four distinct planes: the myth (story) of the return, the return to the myth, the return of the myth and the myth (illusion) of the return. The first manifestation of this myth of the return is the Homeric story of the Odyssean archetype. Secondly is expressed the return to the myth into a recycled ideological and poetic form. Thereafter is shaped the return of the myth, through which the initial mythology of the return occurs as a concept that enables a primary form of expression. Finally is transcended the myth of the return, which is no longer only story, but illusion. / Η νεοελληνική ποίηση του 20ου αιώνα διαποτίζεται από την ανακύκλωση των μυθολογικών μορφών της κλασικής ελληνικής μυθολογίας. Αυτή η ανακύκλωση, επεξεργασμένη από νεοέλληνες ποιητές σαν τον Καβάφη, τον Σεφέρη και τον Ελύτη, εκδηλώνεται ως το φαινόμενο του μύθου της επιστροφής, το οποίο διακρίνεται και εξελίσσεται μέσα από τέσσερις διαφορετικές όψεις : ο μύθος (η ιστορία) της επιστροφής, η επιστροφή στον μύθο, η επιστροφή του μύθου και ο μύθος (η ψευδαίσθηση) της επιστροφής. H πρώτη όψη, ο μύθος της επιστροφής, εμφανίζεται ως η πρωτοπόρα ομηρική επική αναφορά της επιστροφής του Οδυσσέα. Η δεύτερη όψη, η επιστροφή στον μύθο, διακρίνεται ως η επαναχρησιμοποίηση του μύθου ως ιδεολογικού πλαισίου. Στην συνέχεια, ο μύθος της επιστροφής επανέρχεται σαν ιδέα που γεννά μια επιθυμία επιστροφής σε κάποια αρχική ή ουσιαστική μορφή ή κατάσταση. Στην τέταρτη όψη, η επιστροφή είναι αυταπάτη, είναι μύθος. Έτσι λοιπόν συνδυάζεται η τελευταία όψη αυτής της μυθικής ποίησης του μύθου της επιστροφής, όπου ξεφεύγοντας από το ομηρικό αρχέτυπο, παραμένουμε με κάτι το πρωτότυπο.

No description available.

No description available.