Austerity Measures

The New Greek Poetry

Since the crisis hit in 2008, we have heard much about Greece's economic travails. This year, the world watched as Syriza dramatically took a stand against austerity - and, after months of attrition, finally capitulated. But this is not the whole story. As Karen Van Dyck shows in this anthology of the very best contemporary Greek poetry - much of it made available here for the first time in outstanding English translation by such trusted translators as A.E. Stallings - the last decade has also seen a remarkable flowering of new creative talent. These are poems concerned with the personal and the political; with the small pleasures of the suburban garden and the viciousness of streetfights; with bodies, love, myth, migration and economic crisis. Together, they form a unique window onto the lived experience of Greek society now.
Austerity is a self-defeating economic policy which has taken an ugly toll in Greece. The silver lining is that, along with the mass unemployment and the rise of Nazism that it engendered, austerity also occasioned a cultural renaissance. This volume of multilingual poetry is a splendid example: living proof that the Greek crisis is of global significance. It deserves aninternational audience. Now!
Yanis Varoufakis

About Karen Van Dyck

Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241250624
  • Length: 496 pages
  • Dimensions: 181mm x 30mm x 111mm
  • Weight: 308g
  • Price: £16.99
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