Identity and Locus in the Short Stories of G.M.

Vizyenos The Consequences of the Old Story and Moscov-Selim

Chapter from my book: : 1880 [In order to come to another exile: Narratives of Place in the Prose Fiction of the Generation of the 1880s], Patras, Opportuna, 2012

Identity and Locus in the Short Stories of G.M. Vizyenos The Consequences of the Old Story and Moscov-Selim [...] ' , , . , ' ' , ' . ' . ' , , ! (Vizyenos poem entitled Simile from the collection Atthides Aurai, 1883)

A number of Greek authors in the 1880s-1890s period wrote about their homeland, adopting the perspective of the outside observer who controls space and retains as objective a view as possible. The aim, among others, was to promote Greek culture among foreign readers who were seeking to understand different facets of local folk culture.1 As Panagiotis Moullas notes, Demetrius Vikelas, the visionary Paris-based businessman and active proponent in the promotion of all things Greek abroad, possibly encouraged Vizyenos to write short stories when they met in the French capital in the summer of 1882. 2 Indeed, Vizyenos penned five of his six official stories (the sixth being Moscov-Selim) while in Paris and London, sending the work to the Athenian magazine Estia for their weekly publication.3 Of course, the short story The Consequences of the Old Story played the opposite role, offe ring

. See R. S. Peckham, National Histories, Natural States: Nationalism and the Politics of Place in Greece, London, I. B. Tauris, 2001. I have used the Greek translation of the book published in Athens in 2001 by Enalios, p. 179. 2 . G. . Vizyenos, Neoellenika diegemata, ed. P. Moullas, Athens, Estia, 51996, p. . Henceforth all references to Vizyenos text will be from this edition and only the number of page will be noted at the end of extracts. 3 . Let us be reminded that Vizyenos first story My Mothers Sin was published initially in French in the Nouvelle Revue, translated by Vikelas friend, Marquis de Queux de Saint-Hilaire.

2 Greek readers an image of the German landscape and culture through the eyes of two Greek students. Vizyenos created a fictional universe that was inevitably based on an interpretive quandary. The titles of his short stories are shaped in the form of questions that silence the evident answers. He drew, naturally, from the material of folklore (as is attested in Who was My Brothers Killer? and The Only Journey of his Life), but adopted a novel approach to realism and to conveying a sense of reality. His was a narrative that explored the new national and cultural identity in dialogue with the techniques of dominant literary trends realism and occasionally romanticism revealing the multiple interpretative possibilities, the likely outcomes that were often crafted in concert by the realm of fairytale and the real world, but also the deceptive nature of things that undermine the world of the senses. The short story The Consequences of the Old Story, which attests to the writers propensity for the empirical element, recalls his experiences from the time he spent in Germany as a student. Vizyenos received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Gttingen on 25 February 1881, after having studied in Leipzig and in Berlin. 4 The story, however, was written in London, possibly towards the end of 1882 or at the start of the following year. Moullas argues that this is one of Vizyenos earliest pieces of writing. 5 Vizyenos wrote it at a time when he was away from Greece and Germany, thus passing his experiences in both locations through the filter of distance.6 Moreover, by being published in Estia the story instantly acquired a dual nationality even though it was not intended to be read as a direct response to a first short-story competition held by the periodical, in 1883. The title of the short story is composed of two separate parts, both subject to multiple interpretations worth exploration: the first pertains to consequences, without, however, elucidating on what these may be, and the second refers to an old story, thus, in a way inviting the reader to assume that there is some kind of conflict between an event of the past and a

. See Paraskevi Sidera-Lytra, Vizyenos relation with Germany, Endochora 48, special issue 3 (December 1996) 45. 5 . As Moullas notes in his introduction to Vizyenos short-stories, the reference to Professor H. Lotze and the poem with the title Anemone which is composed by the author himself and included in the story as the song of the girl from the asylum (p. 115), reinforce the validity of the hypothesis that this is one of Vizyenos first stories (published from 1st to 29th of January 1884) (See Moullas op. cit., pp. & note). 6 . See V. Athanassopoulos, The Myths of the Life and the Work of G. Vizyenos, Athens, Kardamitsa, 1992, pp. 47-50. Moullas accurately points out also that a neutral place was needed for the incubation of this work. Moullas op. cit, p. .

3 contemporary situation. The story has generally been interpreted either through the prism of romanticism or of narrative logic. This study aims at a different interpretation based on the theories of cultural studies. The Consequences of the Old Story shows a masterful handling of the form of dialogue with the culture of the other, as it emerges from written monum ents, and natural and imaginary landscapes. The narrative style draws from the style of rhetoric of German romanticism, but also from the trend of positivism that was emerging at the time. The fact the writer drew on German romanticism is indicated in the secret compassion that is established between human passions and fantasies on the one hand and the manifestations of natural phenomena on the other, as well as in the treatment of the romantic common ground of the unexplored dark world of the mines that metaphorically symbolizes the journey into the inner ego and the furious self-examination that leads to the mining of precious ores-memories, at the risk, however, of digression and destruction. 7 Also apparent, however, is a dialogue with the theory of positivism, or faith in the rationality of the sciences of literature, psychiatry and mineralogy, as well as an emphasis on a kind of environmental determinism, meaning the biological and geoclimatic elements that are seen as defining cultural identity. 8 The writer chose to transpose his characters and his readers there, to a foreign locus, where the search for both the Western and the Eastern ideal becomes refracted and the consequences of that search are explored.9 In the narrative universe, the duality of the characters and of the events poses the interpretative question of how identities are composed and established. Moreover, the plot evolves through the conversations between the narrator and his interlocutors and, more tacitly, through dialogues between the text and the reader so that nowhere are we given a clear interpretation of the phenomena, but, rather, different readings of the landscape, its state and the treatment of the truth.10 The characters, however, of the story and its interpretive fluidity suggest an inability to present a
7

. Lizzie Tsirimokou, Validity and Refutation of a Romantic Topos: the Gold-bearing Bowels of Earth in The Discourse of Presence, a Volume in Honour of P. Moullas, eds. M. Mike, M. Pechlivanos, L. Tzirimokou, Athens, Sokolis, 2005, pp. 343-344. 8 . See Peckham op. cit., p. 135. 9 . Patricia Felisa, Barbeito, Altered States: Space, Gender, and the (Un)making of Identity in the Short Stories of Georgios Vizyenos, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 13 (October 1995) 308. 10 . For example, Paschalis description of his beloved Clara betrays similarities with the image that the narrator has created for the girl in the asylum outside Gttingen and seems to identify the two girls as one person.

4 comprehensive composition and underscore the difficulties inherent in all forms of communication. These are difficulties that emerge in part from the inability of the foreigner to integrate into the new locus and to decide whether to accept or reject the new reality: ambivalence between a past and present state that deprives the characters of the security of a single direction and places them mainly in the median, a place where boundaries are indiscernible, where defining lines become blurred and where, at the same time, interpretive possibilities are multiplied. The theories of Edward Said on the exiled intellectual can help us understand Vizyenos perspective. Said argues that the exile develops his scope of perception through a double perspective: he sees and reads things both along the terms of what he left behind but also along the terms that are in play in the here and now. Every scene or situation in the new locus is compared to similar situations in the previous locus. Intellectually, this means that an idea or experience is always counterposed with another, therefore making them both appear in a sometimes new and unpredictable light.11 Said further notes that while leaving a familiar locus is generally a very real situation, it can often be seen as a metaphor, as a process of intellectual alienation. What he composes is an image of the intellectual who never adapts fully to the existing state, who believes that he does not belong in the reassuring and familiar world of the natives and thus carefully avoids the trappings of national prosperity and accommodation.12 This kind of detachment, of course, does not always require dislocation it is often compatible with staying put though it does also mean having to face adverse conditions.
Exile for the intellectual in [the] metaphysical sense is restlessness, movement, constantly being unsettled, and unsettling others. You cant go back to some earlier and perhaps more stable condition of being at home and, alas, you can never fully arrive, be at one with your new home or situation.13

This dissatisfaction, furthermore, has the tendency to become borderline pathological, creating a new or albeit temporary modus vivendi that is shaped by the components of deprivation and misery, a kind of alienation that is often voluntary. However, in later
11

. .W. Said, Representations of the Intellectual (the 1993 Reith Lectures), New York, Vintage Books, 1996, p. 60. It should be noted that the diasporic experience is not identical with the exile. In both cases though there is the feeling of detachment from something familiar and the attempt or the lack of it to adjust to something less familiar. This process creates the need to search for certain solid references which will be offering some relief in the emotional burden of the individual. 12 . Op. cit., pp. 52-53. 13 . Op. cit., p. 53.

5 work, Said also argues that the same condition can have a positive effect by stimulating new and creative forms of expression.14 The metaphorical journey of the narrator in this short story, juxtaposed with the writers own relocation to Germany, his efforts to gain recognition as a writer and the association of his short stories with other genres 15 this particular story, for example, was associated with romantic fiction reveals a double consciousness, or double perspective. The narrator draws from different experiences that reveal new worlds but also manages to capture and process these experiences while maintaining a certain distance from them. The now-widely accepted term double consciousness was introduced in 1903 by Du Bois and means, in broad terms, looking at oneself through the eyes of the other and through the prism of their expectations. It describes the internalization of the images projected by others, a process that may also lead to the development of a fetish or a phobia in regard to the human body. 16 Moreover, it means processing the world through the prism of a double existence. 17 This double perspective, which underscores the ambivalence towards, but also the exhilarating effect of new experiences, a pattern that contributes to the formation of the identity of the subject in a non-familiar locus and evolves through the opportunities that are available on such occasions, can help shed light on different aspects of Vizyenos prose. The dual perspective also relates to the characters disposition to be included into the new locus and their awareness of diversity. These parameters are influenced by the given locus and the linguistic choices that are available. How does the locus (as

14

. . . W. Said, Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press, 2000, p. 173. In our postmodern era, diaspora constitutes a new meaning of the homeland. The idea of home is created through the shared memories and less through the common locus. In the in-between space which is defined on the one hand by the negation to get adjusted, and on the other by the desire to coordinate with new experiences, the creation of identity remains a constant process of reevaluation and redefinition. See D. Tziovas, Introduction in Greek Diaspora and Migration since 1700. Society, Politics and Culture, ed. D. Tziovas, Surrey, Ashgate, 2009, p. 5. 15 See . Chryssanthopoulos, Georgios Vizyenos: Between Imagination and Memory, Athens, Estia, 2 2006, p. 19. 16 . . W. E. B. Du bois, The Souls of Black Folk, eds. D. W. Blight & R. Gooding-Williams, Boston, Bedford Books, 1997. See also Barbeito op. cit., pp. 307, & 322note. 17 . The term is presented also through the variation of double-voiced and is used by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and other African American theoreticians of literature in order to analyze the ways in which a literary work may be both an expression of the national canon and its opposition problematizing the idea of national and racial difference. The black tradition has inscribed within it the very principles by which it can be read. It is a tradition of a double voice and this element must be tak en into consideration in the construction of its literary canon. The same could apply to any tradition that bears the marks of dependence from another dominant culture. See The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 21989, pp. xxiii & xxv.

6 a context, as all things tangible with which the narrator-writers life is associated) influence his narrative perspective? As Artemis Leontis notes, the locus is the space that is inhabited, built, developed, dismantled, [can be visited] and becomes imprinted on our memory. 18 In this story the locus and its role in defining identity becomes a theme, suspending the traditional parameters of the narrative.19 Reading the world of external surfaces and appearances and transporting it into the inner world of meaning and experience allows us to see how the locus is used as a key element in the formations of inclusion and exclusion. 20 Gttingen is initially presented as bearing similarities to the dusty capital of Athens (or at least this is how the writer-narrator perceived it, probably aware of the audience that would be reading the short story, that is mostly the Athenian readers of Estia). The basic difference between the two cities, however, is that the German city is bitterly cold and this is profoundly felt by the narrator who has only experienced temperate Athenian winters and is therefore forced to spend much of his time indoors. Later, the narrator describes the delightful countryside that lies on the outskirts of Gttingen and extols the architectural qualities of an insane asylum located there and where he visits a doctor for a nagging cough. The transition from a pleasant outdoor space via an orderly structure into a locus of disorder and mental illness is not without apprehension. As the narrator notes, the boundaries between the two worlds that of the inside and that of the outside are immediately distinct. There are two different forces at play in the insane asylum, that of life and that of gradual death: One hearing these concerts neglects to ask why such cheerful windows are covered with iron bars like the windows or prisons (108).21 The confusion grows as the hall into which the narrator and the doctor enter after traveling along many different corridors has been designed to resemble the outdoors, with green carpeting, blue walls and a glass-domed ceiling that gives the impression of being out in the fresh air. Can a place of confinement be as pleasant as being in the countryside, or is this how the

18

. See Artemis Leontis, Topographies of Hellenism: Mapping the Homeland, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1995. I have consulted the Greek edition by Scripta, 1998, p. 29. 19 . See Barbeito op. cit., p. 302. 20 . See P. Jackson, Maps of Meaning: An Introduction to Cultural Geography, London, Routledge, 1989, p. 177. See also D. E Cosgrove & S. J. Daniels (eds.), he Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design, and Use of Past Environments, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988. 21 William F. Wyatt Jr. has translated admirably these stories, but, unfortunately, I was not able to consult his book. Therefore, all translations of Vizyenos text are mine. See W. F. Wyatt Jr., My Mothers Sin and other Stories, London, Brown University Press, 1988.

7 narrator perceives it? That the asylum (where he meets the unfortunate young German girl) has a profound impact on him is further apparent from the fact that he also associates it with a Greek university, in an oxymoron that draws parallels between a place of confinement and a place associated with freedom of speech and ideas (108). As Erving Goffman argues in his study Asylums, the craziness or sick behavior claimed for the mental patient is by and large a product of the claimants social distance from the situation that the patient is in, and is not primarily the product of mental illness (1994: 135).22 One of the main accomplishments of the total institution, Goffman further argues, is the staging of differences between two constructed categories of persons [those who are ill and those who are not]; a difference in perceptions of self and other.23 With this in mind, we could argue that the descriptions offered by the narrator appear to trigger a mechanism that normalizes the differences, artfully imbuing the text with intense ambivalence through the ambiguity surrounding the loci and their functions. The descriptions of the external and internal spaces present the locus as a dual reality that imposes the transposition of meaning or its total annihilation.24 The states of confinement and freedom also relate to the manner in which the two main characters of the story manage their lives in a professional capacity. The locus, the professional framework in which the characters exist one as a humanities scholar and the other as a mineralogist and the ideals of aesthetic conception and creation, are equally relevant to research and compose a mesh through which the formation of identity can be studied. Their professional activities compel them to move around the locus and to engage in exchanges. Transition presupposes both in its literal and in its metaphorical dimension switching from states of confinement to states of disengagement and at the same time a process of interpretation of the phenomena. The states of confinement and freedom in the story metaphorically offer insight into the mindset of the migr. Confinement arises from the ignorance that he ought to dispel by learning more about

22

. . Goffman, Asylums: Essays for the Social Condition of Mental Patients and other Inmates, trans. X. Komninos, Athens, Evrialos, 1994, p. 135. 23 . Goffman op. cit., p. 118. 24 . The motif of confinement in the story is apparent both in the compulsory isolation in the house in Hartz because of the weather conditions and in Paschalis descent in the tunnels underneath the earth. See R. S. Peckham, Memory and Homelands: Vizyinos, Papadiamantis, and Geographical Imagination, Kambos 3 (1995) 107.

8 how to smoothly coexist in the new place and how to live by its rules. Freedo m, meanwhile, is associated with non-assimilation, but also offers the ability to gain multiple new experiences arising from the ability to assess a situation from both the Greek and foreign point of view. Indicative of this direction are the references in the story of the impression made on the narrator when he gazes upon the Harz Mountain range while listening to his friend Paschalis explain how it is connected to the work of Goethe. The natural landscape is presented in the story in a style that takes away its real dimensions and internalizes it. The Harz Mountain becomes a symbol of German romanticism that the narrator and the educated reader see through the eyes of Goethe (127-128).25 The natural landscape has an impact on the narrators inner world and enriches the scope of his perception. Its presence is not presented merely as a pleasant experience that awakens the senses of the two friends, but also suggests a simultaneous foray into the realm of literature. While the loci of confinement create confusion regarding their functionality, external spaces and natural landscapes more particularly, symbolically represent the German cultural identity which the two Greek friends are trying to espouse. Basically, the landscape comes alive through the literary idiom. As Barbeito, however, argues the existence of these two Greeks at the center of this aesthetic framework destroys the balance of the nature/sublime interchange. 26 Since they cannot follow Goethes example, the two Greeks demystify the magical splendor of the mountain by their mere presence. Paschalis admits that as sacrilegious climbers of the Harz they are sullying its landscape when they should, instead, be appeasing it so they are favored in their stroll: [] we are climbing it just to sully its cap. (129).27 The landscape, therefore, dominates as a defining element in the formation of the residents inner world, as a tool for manipulating emotional fluctuations (in the case of the asylum) and as a vehicle of cultural formations.

25 26 27

. See also Peckhams comments op. cit. pp. 108-109.

. See Barbeito op. cit., p. 308. . In this story it is noted the importance of ancient Greek culture in the founding of romantic ideology. The two friends stand as symbols of their Greek identity and allude to the connection of the two cultures. Metaphorically, this is projected mainly through the case of Paschalis who enters the German soil searching for ores. His work reminds us of the importance of foundations for the romantic construction. See Peckham op. cit., p. 111 & Chryssanthopoulos op. cit., pp. 89-109. On the contrary, their effort to conquer the top of Hartz functions subversively reminding them that they do not belong there and are not part of the harmonious landscape.

9 The locus is also reconstructed symbolically in order to highlight the concept of solidarity among fellow countrymen. The story consists of two separate narratives that mirror one another and which the narrator ultimately connects through his desire for meaning and understanding: the story of the confined German girl in the asylum and the story of the star-crossed Paschalis and Clara.28 Another story lies latent within this framework and this is the story of the relationship formed between the two male protagonists, the narrator and Paschalis, two characters that complement the archetypal model of the Greek in a foreign land.29 The relationship between the two friends, regardless of their differences in mentality, creates a sense of community in a foreign land, which, as mentioned above, they need to constantly appease. This is why the narrator decides to travel to Clausthal; not so much to visit the splendid Harz Mountain range but because that is where his compatriot, Paschalis, is. As he tells his doctor: I do not know this place and you see the difficultly I have with my German. I would feel terribly isolated anywhere else, I would suffer from nostalgia. But in Clausthal, as I told you, I have my compatriot, my fellow student (119). The locus as a physical space is substituted by a metaphorical concept of intimacy and understanding through the coexistence of two compatriots in a foreign land. This coexistence makes remaining where they are possible, but it also creates an obstacle to full integration into the pace of the foreign locus. If the narrator aims at forming a small, intimate space for himself in Germany via his relationship with Paschalis, Paschalis is the character who finds himself in constant disharmony with whichever locus he finds himself in. On the one hand, when in Athens he is banished from the ideal love after being rejected by Evlalia (the daughter of his washerwoman). On the other, when in Germany he perceives himself initially through the eyes of his professor, who sees in the young Greek many elements of himself, and later through the eyes of Clara, who imagines him to be much like the Flying Dutchman in Richard Wagners homonymous opera a reference that does not herald anything positive as it tells the tale of an ill-fated ship destined to travel the world for all eternity. Therefore, the projected representations, desires and denials of the others compel him towards an existence of perpetual
28

. See Maria Kakavoulia, The Logic of Narration and the Desire for Interpretation in Vizyenos shortstory The Consequences of the Old Story in Georgios Vizyenos: Proceedings from the International Conference for his Life and Work, 29-30 March 1997, Komotini, Kentro Laikon Dromenon, 1998, p. 124. 29 . See Margaret Alexiou, Writing against Silence: Antithesis and Ekphrasis in the Prose Fiction of Georgios Vizyenos, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 47 (1993) 271.

10 movement and quests, a fate from which he finds an escape in the mining of ores. Paschalis embodies the difficulty of the diasporic subject to build a functional identity, as he feels bound by the commitments of his homeland (be they positive or negative), together with a longing to become assimilated into the new locus and to take advantage of his new potential. 30 Likewise, the female characters in Vizyenos short story become indirectly linked to the poetic of the locus. As Stewart argues in his anthropological study on traditional Greek funerary practices and lamentations, women embody both the concept of home as well as everything that can destroy the concept of the hestia, or hearth and home.31 The Greek woman Evlalia, whose name evokes the art of language, betrays Paschalis trust and love, and dashes his expectation. On the other hand, the German Clara creates a fantasy loaded with cultural connotations that entraps Paschalis either because he is almost unconsciously trying to identify with it (meaning to fulfill some of the characteristics of the German actor playing the operatic hero) or because he feels the inadequacy of one that has been tainted following his unsuccessful romance in Greece. Basically, he is not equal to the idealized image of himself projected by Clara and dashes her desires. It is ironic, of course, that because of this constant transference of the concept of hestia and his pervading sense of inadequacy he ultimately becomes completely identified with the myth of the banished Flying Dutchman. The two female characters in the story Evlalia (whose name refers to eloquent language) and Clara (whose name refers to the picture, the vision) project the incapability of the diasporic subject to translate his/her experiences. 32 The writer manages to shed light on many issues; apart from the connection of the imaginary locus with the cultural field, he makes us think about the notion of identity. He demonstrates its arbitrary essence, often defined by external factors, and portrays the landscape and the literary production as a palimpsest. Furthermore, he reminds us that when communication codes become complex people are led to the extreme measure of withdrawal from communication, manifesting as madness. One cannot assume that the outburst of the girl confined in the asylum with whom Paschalis has a kind of
30

. . S. Dayal, Diaspora and Double Consciousness, The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 29, issue 1 (1996) 54. 31 . . C. Stewart, Demons and the Devil: Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1991, p. 49. 32 This weakness becomes apparent also from the fact that there is no trace of the voice or the presence of Evlalia in the story despite her impact on Paschalis psychology.

11 physical and metaphysical connection is accidental: Close the gates! Throw the strangers out and close the gates! she cried (116). In order to elaborate on the major issue of communication between the two cultures, one should note the importance of the interrelation between the German and the Ancient Greek culture and how this is projected in the text through the reference to common myths between the two people (the German and the Greek), the reciting of Homeric verses by the German doctor with an Erasmian accent which makes them incomprehensible, and, finally, the despair of the incarcerated girl from the effort to render accurately the emotional pain through the common European tradition.

Damn them, she said, they circulate their chants and none is a match for me! None, none! Even the one that I made even that is unfit! And she trailed her thin fingers through the strings of the harp, as if she was caressing them it has nice music though, very nice music! She said with a childish pomposity. So beautiful that it is not written yet. Therefore, excuse me, if I chant it without the notes. (113) 33

The text itself (the language of communication of the author with his audience) is structured in twofold antitheses which express this double point of view in the creation of an interpretation; allowing the ambivalences to exist and giving meaning to all possibilities. In this context, in a series of letters which are either included or mentioned in the text, the previous to the last letter that of the Professor M., Claras father, to Paschalis consists of the central element through which becomes evident the width and the dimensions of the communication problems. 34 The content of the text outside an interpretative framework does not allow the advantage of forming a solid opinion and leaves open the possibility of numerous and perhaps arbitrary readings. The romantic rhetoric, the realistic perspective or the guilty projection as Chryssanthopoulos mentions are three possible interpretative approaches in the specific text.35

33

. This declaration reminds us of the enigmatic To sew the wedding costu mes without sewing and stitches from The Only Journey of His Life. 34 . See Kakavoulia op. cit., p. 125. 35 . Chryssanthopoulos op. cit., p. 93.

12 If we focus on the diasporic perspective which is built around the relationship of the two friends, we may interpret the divergence of their views as far as the content of the letter is concerned as a possible sign of their weakness to comprehend correctly the language and the codes of the other in the reception place. If we read again the relevant extract from the letter, we will note how the narrator, in his effort to project his own interpretation, explains the peculiarities of the German language, creating doubts in his interlocutor:
Then, this or that wanted to make me an orphan if spoken in German, does not mean always that I became indeed an orphan. Many times, it simply means that there was an attempt but it was prevented, as in our language. Furthermore, when, we speak about a deceased person, we do note say pray for this person as much as we say pray for his soul. Why, then, should we feel inclined to attribute the worst meaning to the words of the professor? (156) 36

The reading and the attempt to interpret the letter suggests the metaphorical movement between cultures and their presuppositions and makes apparent the desire expressed by each side towards the foreign other depending on its composition up to that time. Paschalis is one side of the interpretative model he projects the inability to reach the foreign ideal; the narrator presents a rather more conformist discourse which betrays the desire to be adjusted and to handle matters in a peaceful manner. Moreover, the closure becomes possible only through another text, the last letter, which informs the narrator of the fate of the girl and affirms Paschalis vision. With this ending, the exiled Paschalis is identified in a metaphysical manner with the incarcerated girl, with disease and death, just like the authors own illness had been attributed later by one of his relatives to the solitude of living away from home and spending time only on his studies. 37 The other sides codes, the desires and the disappointments of each side of the communication become obvious in the text. However, the interpretation and the decisions of each one are only superficially a persons choice as the burden of the past

36

. It is not without relevance the choice of we say instead of it is said. However, how reliable can be considered the narrator, who, previously, declared that he does not know enough German? (p. 119). 37 . See S. Daphnis, Georgios Vizyenos, the Rhapsode from Thrace I Lexi, introduction G. Zevelakis, issue 135 (Sept. -Oct. 1996) 611.

13 is decisive. It could, nevertheless, be argued that the fate of the two hapless lovers and the narrators recourse to the poem of Goethe, reveal the predominance of the romantic model and the prevalence of the German style of rhetoric. Vizyenos translates Goethes Wanderers Night Song in his own way, lending greater emphasis
to the idea of death.38 The condition of being in a foreign land (xenitia) is presented

in the story as being a state of geographical, cultural and human alienation, and also as being inherent in the nature of language. 39 If everything is negotiable, then only death can bring the ultimate interpretation through silence. The ending of the story appears to confirm the dual perspective of the diasporic subject with the double voice of Goethe and Vizyenos in Wanderers Night Song: In every mountain/ silence reigns;/ in every branch/no leaf is moving/ birds sleep together/ in silence and peace/ Oh wait!/ soon like these, you too shall rest (167). It is a chant, however, that should be listened to as one would the laments of the mentally ill, without notes, meaning not as an entire composition but as a temporary refuge. The Consequences of the Old Story was written at a time when the drive to construct a new cultural identity was expressed as an agonizing search for those points that indicatively enhance the composition of the steady structures of Greek civilization over the passage of the centuries and, therefore, evoke the gravitas of the past. On the other hand, they affirm the inability to fulfill the ideals of the western projections of the Greek locus and its components. The two civilizations are connected by the fact that German romanticism was founded on the ancient Greek legacy and on the duality of Greek folklore which was based on the German ideology, but are also juxtaposed with the theories of Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer.40 As a proponent of diaspora, Vizyenos wrote in Greek and was addressing Greek readers, but he also wrote from the perspective of one isolated from the dominant literary establishment of the time, as well as one who is on the fringes of Greek society in any case: in Greece he was seen as a Turk and in Germany he was a Greek, but in the literary circles of London and Paris where he received the most acceptance he was seen as being of Greek descent.

38

. . W. F. Wyatt, Gothes Wanderers Night Song in Vizyenos, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 11 (1993) 100. 39 . Maria Margaronis, Towards a Poetics of Displacement: Three Stories by Georgios Vizyenos, unpublished postgraduate diss. (M.A), London, Kings College, 1997, p. 15. 40 . See Peckham op. cit (note 1), p. 221.

14 According to the theory of minor literature deve loped by Jacques Deleuze and Flix Guattari for Kafka, placing oneself on the margins creates a sort of exile for language itself. Literature of this kind sees in language only the possibility of escape from convention and views conventional and unitary narratives with skepticism.41 Kafka perceived the literary process as that of creating a new, deserted locus in which he could enjoy absolute freedom of movement. Vizyenos saw the potential to shape characters and loci that are burdened by the shadows of the past, but, despite that, he refused to commit to a unitary narrative. 42 Vis--vis the epic narratives of Homer and Goethe, the work of Vizyenos undertakes the task of exploring the new identity, in discourse with the rhetoric of romanticism and positivism, following the literary loci of western imaginings and ultimately seeking the adequate application of the elements of the common European legacy, and thus revealing a new voice. The short story Moscov-Selim is the last Vizyenos wrote. It was published in the newspaper Estia from 28 April to 16 May 1895, while it was certainly written after September 1886 because it makes reference to the coup that led to the dethronement (on 21 August 1866) of Alexander of Battenberg, the first prince of modern Bulgaria. 43 As in the previous short story, here too we have the element of duality: the double name refers to the main character and creates doubt regarding his true identity by highlighting his dual nationality (Moscov the Russian and Selim the Turk). Therefore, here too we have a narrative about identity, though in this short story it is the locus in all its manifestations that suggests the theme of exile. The central theme of the story consists of the disharmony felt by the character with the strange name suggestive of his own lack of harmony as to the traditional values of his society and the effort to create an alternative value system. Selim the Turk meets the narrator (an educated Greek) and makes a powerful impression on him. The latter takes on the task of telling the reader his story, choosing to allow the heros voice to be heard at certain points. Why does the narrator decide to transmit this story to readers? Does he feel compelled to share with the reader the emotional charge brought on by the story of this very special person? Does he feel that he wants to
41

. See J. Deleuze & F. Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature, trans. D. Polan, introduction R. Bensmaa, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1993, p. 65. 42 . See Georgia Farinou-Malamatari, A postmodern Vizyenos? in The Discourse of Presence op. cit (note 7), pp. 357-358. 43 . See Chryssanthopoulos op. cit., p. 131.

15 shatter or confirm the stereotypes of national identity and mentality, as well as everything that relates to the influence of the environment? Is the narrator an objective receiver and transmitter or is he also embroiled in the game of identities that runs through the story? In this story too Vizyenos technique creates a canvas of questions and doubts that are not answered or dispelled even at the end of the story. The hero is the third son in a wealthy family, yet he has grown up in an environment that commands him to be someone else. His mothers overwhelming desire for a girl coupled with his fathers indifference toward him result ed in his growing up in a harem as he was the only solace of his mother, a woman cast aside in favor of a younger wife. Also cast aside and into an environment that was unsuited to his idiosyncrasies, the hero seeks his fathers approval and the opportunity to display his manhood. When he turns eighteen he takes the place of his older brother who was too frightened to join the army. 44 This is the second time the hero has had to replace one identity with another, though this time it was his choice to do so. The rest of the story is about the heros participation in various battles, during the most important of which, in Russia, he is taken prisoner at the Siege of Plevna. The narrative at this point shows the shift in the heros feelings toward his enemy thanks to the kind treatment he receives.45 He also falls in love for the first time in Russia, giving him one more reason to associate the place with positive experiences. The third substitution of identity, therefore, concerns his espousing a new nationality. The feelings he has for his own country are transferred to the land of the enemy, from whom he receives the greatest acknowledgment he has ever known. 46 His love of Russia is further enhanced when he returns home to find it in a state of disarray, a country scarred by the strife between Christians and Muslims, and one where he is unfairly persecuted by the authorities. Comparing this situation to his previous state of captivity makes the present seem even more dire and untenable, and a permanent

44

. For the influence of the family relations in the development of the story of the central character, see D. Tziovas, The Other Self: Selfhood and Society in Modern Greek Fiction, Oxford, Lexington Books, 2003. I consulted the Greek translation, Polis, 2007, p. 510. 45 . The narrator claims that the Russians adopted that treatment out of ulterior motive, in order to give a positive impression to the Turks and appease their hatred. 46 . The doubts about his gender and the crisis about his nationality create the sense of failure with regards the notion of a stable identity. See Tziovas op. cit., p. 517.

16 return seem like a nightmare. He thus decides to maintain the Russian element that has pervaded his identity as well as he can, and to espouse it in day-to-day life. 47 Chryssanthopoulos argues that the heros personal tale transcends History, for as long at least as his stay in Russia lasts []. When his captivity ends and Selim returns home, the narrative also returns to the historical truth [] henceforth, Selim justly desires to return to the imagined, to be transported into exile, to transfer his emotions.48 Likewise, the narrative is constantly shifting: from one location to another, from one language to another, from one ideology to another and from one discourse to another.49 Selim constructs a locus of his own for the purposes of survival because his homeland and the situations he faces undermine his ability to function in a way that will allow him to feel whole. His first decision is to move as far away as possible from the site of discord. He chooses to live in an isolated rural village, Kaynarca, which the narrator says resembles a Russian locale to some extent, at first sight at least:

When, after having drunk and washed from the dewy spring, I wandered my eyes around this landscape, I got the impression, suddenly, that I had been transported to a small oasis in the steppes of Southern Russia. A small house, away from the spring, placed in a small hill and barely visible behind the dense foliage of two tall oak-trees, contributed admirably to the intensification of that momentary illusion. That small house, wood-based rather than wood-formed in its entirety was an obvious imitation of the poor houses which the Russian villagers call Ioba (204).

There Selim sets up home a Russian-like tent and tries to surround himself with things that remind him of his prior state: he refuses to trade in his worn Cossack boots and asks to be made an urn resembling a samovar in which he can brew his tea. By living in the place he desires and seeking out the Russian element (his attraction toward the narrator during their first meeting is based on the mistaken impression that he is being visited by a Russian), Selim, who is going through a process of reexamining his identity and the way he views the world, creates a kind of heterotopia. It is significant that the hero carries the story of his life with him; his worn boots and
47

. Elpida Rikou points out that Moskov Selim chooses an alternative way of life during which as a director and actor at the same time, he performs daily his created Russian identity. In the article On the Occasion of Moskov Selim, Avgi (25 July 2010) 34. 48 . Chryssanthopoulos op. cit., pp. 140-141. 49 . Chryssanthopoulos op. cit., p. 135.

17 his Turkish fez are valuable possessions that help him maintain the identity he has chosen for himself. 50 The boots especially so, because they are no longer functional as their soles are completely worn and serve instead as a symbol, a remnant of a life during which the hero experienced a sense of wholeness but that has since been lost. When possessions and the memory of moments are lost, what remains as a reminder is of even greater value to the possessor.51 Michel Foucault argues that heterotopias are most ofte n linked to slices of time [] which begin to function at full capacity when people arrive at a sort of absolute break with their traditional time. 52 As noted above, this occurs in the case of the hero following his return to Turkey and the end of what he feels is his real life; that is the life during which the image he had formed of himself and that perceived by the others the Russians coincided and functioned in harmony. With the end of this state of being and the return to a locus marked by grief, as well as by further unfortunate developments, he is left bereft of his own time, his utopia collapses and his consciousness of his identity becomes deranged. His reaction is to grasp onto a piece of this past, of his captivity in Russia, in the hope that he will once more experience the euphoria he has already tasted. He creates this special locus for himself, one that inspires awe in others though more often disgust and ridicule, yet for him it is a vital element as it appears that for the first time in his life he is in complete control of the realm of illusion with which he has been so accustomed since childhood. The heterotopia he forms is open to those who, like the narrator, become emotionally involved with him, who show an interest in his life and accept his idiosyncrasies. The narrator agrees to go on the journey with him and to pay him what is perhaps the greatest honor of all, that of transporting his story to other people and to other loci in this way, he also imprints on the hero his own locus, in the realm of
50

. Selims confusing clothing suggests that his nationality is also confused, a hybrid condition which makes people wonder and turns him into a carnivalesque figure. See Tziovas op. cit., p. 512. See also M. Mike, Transformations in Modern Greek Fiction (19th-20th Century), Athens, Kedros, 2001, pp. 169-176. Mike notes that when the clothing changes, the manipulation of time and space is also altered. This means that, in Selims case there is the creation of a hetero-chronotope in which he lives melancholically his life. In a way, his peculiar clothing allows him a particular freedom of movements. 51 . Many studies which focused on the lives of homeless people or people in periods of crisis, have shown that the possibility for individuals to lose their belongings or to renounce most of them, entails the sense of distancing from the past or its total loss which is very painful. What may be saved in those times acquires then a great sentimental value related to the hope for the future. See Kathleen Arnold, Homelessness, Citizenship, and Identity: The Uncanniness of Late Modernity, New York, State University Press of New York, 2004, p. 66. 52 . M. Foucault, Of Other Spaces, Diacritics 16, issue 1 (Spring 1986) 26.

18 fiction, and makes a part of the heros life his own, just as he pays attention and shows an interest in his fate. I will write your story, the narrator says emphatically before introducing this strange and tortured personality to the readers of the story. Indeed, the spiritual connection between the two, the narrator and the hero, their mutual misunderstanding on their first encounter when both believe the other to be Russian and the poem that the narrator quotes by the great Persian poet Saadi on the communication between different souls (p. 204), allow the joining of the two mens fates in such a way that it is unclear who created whom and for whom the existence of the other is essential. Does Selim need the narrator to confirm h is Russianness or to control the force of his emotions toward one or the other homeland, or does the narrator need Selim as an excuse to express the quandaries that torment him, such as issues of national and religious tolerance, issues of justice and the perception of reality? The relationship between the two is imbued with reciprocity as the narrator pays homage to Selims past by devoting a part of his present to it. Likewise, his own present is broadened and enriched by his association to the past of this paradoxical character. The heros need for a confessor can be paralleled to the confession of the grandfather to his grandson in the short story The Only Journey of his Life , which leads to a more solid interpretation of reality. If at the end of the story, in the words of the narrator, the Turk remained a Turk, that is, the particularity of the adopted perception of external reality is annulled and a return to the domain of national identification is declared, what has been gained in the meantime, like in The Only Journey of His Life, is the emotional entanglement and the essential understanding between people that may be as different as they are alike in the journey of life.