Whitman and Elytis: Workings of Minor Literature

Gilles Deleuze's and Felix Guattari's postmodern theory enables us to view Walt Whitman and Odysseus Elytis as major poets who, by deterritorializing and reterritorializing the English and Greek languages, respectively, become suitable for American and Greek realities and models. Ultimately, however, this contributes to the two poets' minority status. Their unique adaptation of language to American and Greek realities qualifies their writings as minor literature.