Nikos Kazantzakis’ and Kostas Ouranis’ Travel Writings within the Context of Modern Greek Travelogues

Abstract

Nikos Kazantzakis is one of the most famous Greek authors of the 20th century known primarily for his novels. A significant part of Nikos Kazantzakis’s work is his travel writings. Whereas the novels of Kazantzakis are recognized as canonical Greek literature, it is difficult to pinpoint his travelogues, or Ταξιδεύοντας (Traveling) due to the ambiguity of their critical reception: assessments range from neutral or mildly negative to enthusiastic. Both critical and enthusiastic assessments usually lack in-depth analysis of poetic, thematic, compositional, and stylistic features of the Traveling cycle. This essay is an attempt at a more cogent and motivated assessment of Kazantzakis’s cycle of travel notes and his role in the development of this genre. In contrast to the general view in Greek criticism, I argue that the genre of travelogue had developed for an extended period before Traveling was published and that Kazantzakis’s predecessors and contemporaries had contributed to its development. Among them is Kazantzakis’s contemporary Kostas Ouranis whose work has aspects and features to be found in the later work of Kazantzakis as the comparative analysis of the travel notes by both authors demonstrates.

Keywords

• modern greek literature
• travel writings
• travelogue
• nikos kazantzakis
• kostas ouranis
• ταξιδεύοντας.