Core argument

I will argue that the case of Demetrios Capetanakis is not as unusual as it might seem and is
the product of the cultural climate in Europe at the time. Furthermore, I will explore the many
ways in which he transplants practices and discourses from various cultural spheres and as an
extension - from various cultures. Finally, I will try to outline s]ome of the power relations
revealed by his texts and explore tensions that might emerge out of the present day reading of
his work.

Theoretical basis
A working sociolinguistic theory of bilingualism combined with the model of cultural
mobility as presented and analysed in the lectures.

Some Key Points of Analysis:

- forms of self-reference when a second culture appears on the scene (Δημήτριος >
Demetrios); linguistic nationalism in Europe (entails an unfavorable reception of
bilingual writers); admiration of linguistic prowess of second-language writers - a
monolingual vantage point that misunderstands the full significance of such writing
by interpreting it as an aspiration to “universal meaning”;partial bilinguality (L2
becomes an extension of discursive patterns in L1)
- unmarked interferences (“foreign” arrangements of syntactic and semantic structures)
in Capetanakis’ English poems and essays as:
1. indicators of absence of ethnic tension and the informality of an in-group
2. deliberate attempts to negotiate more than one cultural identity
- the modernist themes of exile and intercultural encounter leading to the representation
of different languages (Eliot, Joyce, D.H. Lawrence) and interest in the tensions
between language as a tool of representation and as a represented object (usually
furthered by exploration of failures of communication); in Capetanakis’ case not mere
representation but performance
- self-fashioning at the point of encounter between an authority and an alien; giving
oneself verbal shape from the point of view of the community - orienting statements
in a way that they respond to other statements but also anticipate a response;
Capetanakis’ criticism as:
1. rooted in German symbolist conventions of form;
2. following existential and phenomenological approaches in a mix that reminds of the
later established Vienna school of criticism (no influence is implied simply exploring
the “poetics” of his essays)
3. rooted in the Neo-Humanist discourse of the 30’s as originated by Theotokas
- Foucault’s interpretation of “cryptic” writing (such as Capetanakis’ poems) as
language itself speaking through the vehicle of the author; the philosophical language
of Capetanakis’ poems and the existential theory they in effect seek to prove often
through imagined dialogues and semi-dramatic scenes as well as the emphasis on
limits and transgressions
 - the image of Greek history as universal history and the end of Romantic
Philhellenism; emerging discourses of a masculine, Dionysian Greece; Capetanakis as
an “observer” establishing a center in the relation of multiple ideological bodies that
cannot themselves negotiate a stable core
- spatial and social mobility in Capetanakis’ case; his relations with Athens University,
The British Council, the Korais Chair, the Government in Exile
- the attempt to “conceal” the Greek Resistance, the British-imposed “liberalisation” of
the Government in Exile and power relations in Capetanakis’ writing
- the current migrant crisis and the elision of old markers of belonging to a collective;
the narratives of compassion; the discourse of shattered Philhellenism in Western
media approaches to the economic crisis

Partial bibliography:
Bilingualism in Ancient Society (J.N. Adams et al. 2002), The Poet’s Tongues (Leonard
Forster 2010), Multilingualism in Modernist Fiction (J. Taylor-Batty 2013), Wanderwords
(Maria Lauret), The Bakhtin Reader (ed. Pam Morris 2003), Michel Foucault (Sara Mills
2003), Foucault: A Very Short Introduction (Gary Gutting 2005), New Historicism and
Cultural Materialism (John Brannigan 1998), Historicism (Paul Hamilton 1996),
Shakespeare and Contemporary Theory (Neema Parvini 2012), Renaissance self-fashioning
(Stephen Greenblatt 1980), In Byron's shadow (David E. Roessel 2001), Anglo-Greek
attitudes (Richard Clogg 2000), Modern Greece: A Cultural Poetics (Vangelis Calotychos
2003), Greece and Britain Since 1945 (ed. David Wills 2014), A History of Modern
Criticism: 1750-1950: v. 7. German, Russian, and Eastern European Criticism, 1900-1950
(Réne Wellek 1992), Demetrios Capetanakis: A Greek Poet in England (John Lehmann
1947), Renegotiations of History in light of the 'Greek Crisis' (Podcast at “Oxford University
Podcasts” 2016).