Le Soupçon et l'amertume dans le roman grec moderne (review)

Reviews 293 natural events in die rural calendar. A subtextual analysis sees die hand of village women behind this preeminence given to biography as it is located in die events of conception, birth, and deadi, as well as to the preeminence given to the annual agricultural calendar, symbolized in the seasonal availability of foods prepared by women. Scholars and students of die history and andiropology of religion, gender, and southern Europe will be richly rewarded by reading Time, Religion, and Social Experience in Rural Greece. Sally Cole Concordia University, Montreal Renée-Paule Debaisieux, Le Soupçon et l'amertume dans le roman grec moderne. Paris: L'Harmattan. 1992. Pp. 207. Aldiough the study of "ethography" is hardly a new undertaking, it may become innovative if new insight is added to the term. Ηθογϕαφία refers both to a specific period in Greek literary history and also to a set of practices that influenced the cultural practices of die first decades of the twentieth century. How and where ethography originated, who practiced it, and what its relation was to the aestiietic, social, and political goals of late nineteendi century Greece have already been described and interpreted in various ways. Renée-Paule Debaisieux places her essay in the strongly debated but still valid and potentially dynamic realm of literary history. As stated on the back cover of her book, her aim is to present to a French readership major writers such as Karkavitsas, Papadiamandis, Theotokis, and Hatzopoulos. The subject of women's writing is not raised. Nor is the question of under what conditions the literary production of a peripheral country like Greece becomes known in France or any other country witii a sophisticated and authoritative critical establishment, given mat the general dynamics of power do not enhance crosscultural exchange. The terms and validity of such exchange, the legitimacy of "odier" national literatures, and the nature of the target-public are issues that deserve consideration but are not addressed in Debaisieux's book. The author provides a thematic approach to the novels and short stories. She does this by assembling scattered elements found in die texts and then generalizing about them in a way that does not reveal any overall conceptual framework. Her critical criteria are not based on the texts themselves, nor are they sufficiendy elaborated to reveal a specific type of discourse. The fact that the analyzed material falls within generic categories is hardly discussed. Clichés about major literary and aestiietic movements are reproduced, but die specifically Greek character of each movement is not examined. The book is divided into three parts. The first (19-50), entitied "La Tradition populaire," surveys die main points mat ethography and folksong 294 Reviews have in common. It provides an inventory of "mêmes"—for example, stereotypical attitudes concerning die relations between Greeks and Turks (19-22), accounts of the negative status of false heroes motivated by personal interest, and the acclaim given "simple" people who possess the authentic values of courage and kindness ( 19-25). The author ends this chapter with die hypothesis that this "popular glorification" develops a mythic dimension (25), a potentially fruitful hypothesis that unfortunately is neither questioned nor developed in die rest of the book, like several other topics—for example, illusion, nostalgia, idyllic versions of the family, and human responsibility—that, similarly, are merely formulated and hinted at, without being explored. The second part (51-106), called "La Crise des valeurs traditionnelles," examines various aspects of this crisis of traditional values, including women's status, honor, difficulties regarding the mother's role, mental illness, social differences, and exploitation. The third part (107-168), "Un Monde en mutation," discusses the influence of Nietzsche and aestheticism in Greece, as well as topics such as lost illusions and the existential effects of the political utopias of die time (although Sartre is never mentioned). The book's most blatant deficiencies stem mainly from the absence of a solid theoretical framework. Debaisieux fails to clarify either her hypotheses or her readings of the texts. The concise summaries of the novels or short stories are rendered in a way to legitimize the author's meta-commentaries (22, 144). Several highly controversial issues are...