Kazantzakis, Volume 1: Politics of the Spirit
By Peter Bien
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About this ebook
"No author who lives in Greece," writes Peter Bien, "can avoid politics." This first volume of his major intellectual biography of Nikos Kazantzakis approaches the distinguished--and controversial--writer by describing his struggle with political questions that were in reality aspects of a fervent religious search.
Beginning with Kazantzakis's early career in fin-de-siècle Paris and his discovery of William James, Nietzsche, and Bergson, the book continues by describing his experiments with communism in turbulent Greece, his visits to Soviet Russia, and the publication of his epic Odyssey in 1938. Bien demonstrates that politics and religion cannot be separated in Kazantzakis's development. His major concern was personal salvation, but the method he employed to win that salvation was political engagement. Did deliverance lie in nationalism? Communism? Fascism? He eventually rejected each of these possible solutions as morally appalling. Abused by both left and right, he insisted on an "eschatological politics" of spiritual fulfillment.
This compelling biography will be essential reading for Kazantzakis scholars and for a wide audience of those who already admire the Greek author's work. In addition, it will provide an introduction to the first three decades of Kazantzakis's career for those who have yet to enjoy such passionate and stirring novels as Zorba the Greek, The Greek Passion, and The Last Temptation of Christ.
This first volume provides an introduction to the initial three decades of Kazantzakis's career for those who have enjoyed such vibrant and stirring novels as Zorba the Greek, The Greek Passion, and The Last Temptation of Christ.
Peter Bien
Peter Bien is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College. His Kazantzakis: Politics of the Spirit, Volume 1 was first published by Princeton in 1989 and was translated into Greek in 2001. It will be published in paperback by Princeton in February 2007. Bien has translated Kazantzakis's books The Last Temptation of Christ, Saint Francis, and Report to Greco into English, and is the author of Kazantzakis and the Linguistic Revolution in Greek Literature (Princeton).
Read more from Peter Bien
Princeton Modern Greek Studies
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Titles in the series (15)
Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Early Modern Mediterranean Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kazantzakis, Volume 1: Politics of the Spirit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKazantzakis, Volume 2: Politics of the Spirit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Notes from the Balkans: Locating Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian Border Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGeorge Seferis: Collected Poems - Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFirewalking and Religious Healing: The Anastenaria of Greece and the American Firewalking Movement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDance and the Body Politic in Northern Greece Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDemons and the Devil: Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter the War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece, 1943-1960 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Fourth Dimension Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In a Different Place: Pilgrimage, Gender, and Politics at a Greek Island Shrine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Films of Theo Angelopoulos: A Cinema of Contemplation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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