ABSTRACT

One of the most acknowledged characteristics of Greek literature in first three-quarters of the twentieth century is its Greek-centred orientation. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the syndrome of insecurity was radically diverted, though without any profound change regarding the place of Greek literature on the world map. The most characteristic manifestation of this diversion is cosmopolitanism. Yorgis Yatromanolakis is a special case in the atmosphere of superficial cosmopolitanism. On closer examination, it becomes obvious that what he avoids are ostentatious references to the cosmopolitan, while he attempts a discreet promotion of the local to the global. After fiction, description is the second means whereby the local is expanded, although on both levels of the real, its effect is equally or correspondingly realistic. In the myth of all Yorgis Yatromanolakis's novels there is either a veiled or an explicitly stated determinism. This determinism not only constitutes the programme of the myth; it is also part of the myth.