Dr. Ioanna Skordi

Cavafy has been the key inspiration of a line of younger – and very different – Greek writers who employ homoerotic modes. This thesis, covering the years 19052010, concentrates on some major examples (Sikelianos, Lapathiotes, Ritsos, Ioannou, Christianopoulos) chosen for their variety of responses to the homoerotic Cavafy. In aggregate these writers, along with Cavafy himself, can be considered a ‘regiment’: the ‘Regiment of Pleasure’, in Cavafy’s term. In presenting these writers in this fashion, I attempt to illuminate both the work of the successors and that of their influential precursor. In the three broad yet selective chapters that constitute the main body of my thesis, I seek to display the culture-specific elements of the Modern Greek contribution to homoerotic writing, as these can be extrapolated from a critical examination of the poetic legacy of Cavafy, within three themes: Chapter 1, ‘The Appropriation of Ancient Greek Eros’, delineates the ways in which modern Greek ...