Διαχείριση Ιστορικότητας και Εθνική Ταυτότητα για νεαρούς ενηλίκους: Η Μικρή Ηρωίδα της Γαλάτειας Καζαντζάκη, του P.-J. Stahl και της M. Vilinska

Abstract

In 2013 the centenary of the union Crete with Greece was celebrated. On the occasion of the anniversary Galateia Kazantzakis’ novel A Little Heroine (1951) which refers to the massacre in the Arkadi Monastery, was studied in many schools. Today’s reading in school was used to cultivate historical knowledge and cultural consciousness. However, the intentions of the author were wider, as the work is not without a disguised spirit of cosmopolitanism. Through the story of the Cretan girl, Lenio, the events are described with relative historical accuracy, interwoven with interesting facets of Cretan folklore. Fragments of this children’s novel are incorporated to the dramatic play of Galateia Kazantzaki, To Arkadi.

Although it is not declared anywhere, the novel of Galateia Kazantzaki is anything but original. It cleaves faithfully to and often paraphrases the story of J.-P. Stahl’s little heroine, Maroussia (1879), an Ukrainian girl who is not afraid of the Russian conquerors of her homeland. The Greek author uses the translation of Panayotis Ferbos written in an elegant katharevousa. The book of Stahl had been sent to the pupils of Alsace at the time the province was under German occupation. Thus, it proposes a skillful and allusive management of the historical material endeavouring to cultivate a “by analogy” love of fatherland and to create a French national consciousness, without speaking explicitly about this. The high renowned French author and famous publisher of the works of Jules Verne, was fully aware of how to bypass political censorship.

However, the French work too is not original. It is a version of the homonymous novel (Marysia) by the Russian-Ukrainian literary figure Maria VilinskaMarkovytch (1872).

The spatial-temporal transformations of these texts, as well as their characteristic differentiations, are particularly fascinating. The corresponding heroine is modelled differently by the left-wing feminist Galateia Kazantzaki, the French moderate socialist J.-P. Stahl and the militant Ukrainian (female) author committed to his homeland’s struggle for liberation. Indeed, because these books are published also today, they are illustrated and perceived in different ways. In my paper I try to follow the journey of the young heroine in space and time, and to detect the way in which the game of reception and (re)creation is played.