Afroditi Athanasopoulou

Biography

Afroditi Athanasopoulou (1968, Athens) holds a M.Sc. (1992) and a Ph.D. (1999) in Modern Greek Literature at the University of Crete. Since September 2011 she works as an Assistant Professor in Modern Greek Literature in the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Cyprus. Previously, she has taught Modern Greek Literature at the Universities of Padova (1992-1997), Patras (2000-2002) and at the Hellenic Open University (2005-06). She has also worked at the “Laboratory of History and Social Sciences” of the Department of Primary Education at the University of the Aegean (2003-2008). Since 2009 she collaborates with the Cypriot Ministry of Education as a member of the scientific Committee responsible for the new Curriculum of Literature Studies in the compulsory education of Cyprus. Her research is basically oriented in the field of Modern Greek Literature (with a focus on 19th and the 20th centuries literary production and criticism), the Teaching of Literature and the relations between Literature and History in a cross-disciplinary approach. She is also interested in Linguistic and Cultural Studies, as well as in the History of ideas. She has participated in congresses and workshops held in Greece and abroad and she has published essays on subjects and significant authors of Modern Greek Literature such as Solomos, Kavafis, Seferis, Viziinos, Papadiamantis, Kazantzakis, Montis, Ritsos, Leivaditis, the Greek Romantic Movement, the Modern Greek “Language Question”, Narratology, Metrics ecc. She has translated from Italian the inter-disciplinary based monograph of Massimo Peri, "Malato d’amore. La poesia dei medici e la medicina dei poeti" (Greek edition: P.E.K., 1999) and she is the co-author of the book "Mataiomeni Outopia" [A frustrated utopia] (Taxideftis ed., 2008). Her most recent work is on the new Curriculum of Literature Studies in the compulsory education of Cyprus (see http://www.schools.ac.cy/eyliko/mesi/Themata/logotechnia/index.html ). Additionally, she has collaborated as a curator and translator with reputable Greek editors such as the University of Crete Press (P.E.K.) and more recently with the Benaki Museum.

Research Interest

Modern Greek Literature with a focus on 19th and 20th centuries literary production and criticism. More specifically: Greek Romanticism (Heptanesian and Athenian Schools) with a focus on the oeuvre of Dionysios Solomos; the Greek Language Question (from the Enlightenment onwards), Realism in prose both in Greek and European tradition, Nikos Kazantzakis as a writer and a thinker. Also: Literary Theory with a focus on narratology and the poetical topoi; Methods and approaches to Teaching Literature; Relations between Literature and History (19th century historical poetry and historical novel, the historical Cavafy, the “political ethics and poetics” of the post-World War II generation).