Open Papers

by Odysseas Elytis, Olga Broumas (Translator), T Begley (Translator)

Overview

Open Papers is the primary statement on his art by Odysseas Elytis, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Literature, and a sweeping exploration of the mind and mythic imagination of one of the most original, visionary and compelling poets of this century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781556590702
Publisher:	Copper Canyon Press
Publication date:	10/01/1994
Series:	Writing Re: Writing
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

Editorial Reviews

Part autobiography, part statement of artistic principles, the five essays collected here cover Elytis's journey to poetry, from discovering the works of Sappho at age 16 to winning the Nobel Prize in 1979. Born in Crete in 1911, at 18 Elytis heard ``a secret voice'' that led him to abandon everything for his art. As a student in the 1930s he was totally absorbed in the Surrealists with luard, Breton and Lorca offering new perspectives to a young man already influenced by Freud, Baudelaire and Novalis. He pays tribute to these and other writers in the essay ``For Good Measure,'' which also honors Picasso for his insistence on turning upside down one's view of the natural world. In the most interesting section of the book, ``Chronicle of a Decade,'' Elytis recounts the time spent seeking out writers and periodicals that would be sympathetic to newfound passion for a lyrical and mystical vision of life. Elytis's credo is set forth in the title of the last essay-``Art-Luck-Risk.'' If, through the decades, Elytis did take political and artistic risks, this clear articulation shows that his art was not guided by luck or risk alone but by a real belief in modernism. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Ostensibly, these five essays by the Greek poet Elytis, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Literature, explore his development as a poet and his continuity with classical and modern Greek and European literature and myth. In a deeper sense, the selections represent autobiographical prose poems that reproduce the poetic process as Elytis meanders from an awareness of light and nature to passion and ecstasy, from the possibilities of metaphor in Greek to the influences of Rimbaud, Jouve, Lautramont, Lorca, Ungaretti, and others. Joining the ranks of George Seferis and Yannis Ritsos, Elytis attempts to establish the contours of an authentic modern Greek poetry that is true to the Hellenic spirit. Of interest to students of modern poetry in general.-T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.

Library Journal