| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: Contemporary Cypriot literature in the Greek language is today, in terms of quantity, the most significant Greek literature outside Greece. In recent years more and more readers, scholars and critics have come to recognise that it is also a literature of note, both in proportion to the island’s size and in comparison with Modern Greek literature as a whole; indeed, many believe—with good reason, in this author’s opinion—that, particularly since 1960, Cyprus has been experiencing a literary efflorescence which offers a unique contribution to ‘panhellenic’ literature. After stating the central issue, which has to do with the study of various aspects of the relation of Cypriot literature to the ‘frame’ of Modern Greek literature, a brief review is attempted of literary developments in Cyprus from the later Middle Ages to the present. We then examine the content and appropriateness of certain characterisations which have been applied, or might be applied, to Cypriot literature, and which concern its connection with or detachment from Helladic and Modern Greek literature in general. Of the terms discussed, the author considers that those which are most appropriate and useful are: local, peripheral, autonomous and self-determined, terms to which a positive value is here assigned. |
