Η αφηγηματική ειρωνεία στα ιστορικά μυθιστορήματα του Αλέξανδρου Παπαδιαμάντη

Abstract

Irony is an important but underexplored aspect of Alexandros Papadiamantis' poetics. By focusing on his three early novels, this article studies the ways in which irony contributes to the narrator's subversive dialogue with his own narrative act as well as with the literary conventions of the time — notably those of European and Greek romanticism. An analysis of Papadiamantis' narrative techniques shows that in his early novels there is a tendency towards an increasing narrative self-awareness that corresponds to an equally increasing ironical subversion of the conditions of the reception and aesthetic actualization of the narrative process. This ironic self-referentiality reaches its peak in Gyftopoula, the work that marks the end of Papadiamantis' career as writer of historical novels and his turn towards the formally more fragmented narrative genre of short-story (diegema).