Cavafy as World Literature - (Literatures as World Literature) by Takis Kayalis & Thomas Oliver Beebee & Vicente Fernández González & Sofia Ahlberg

Book Synopsis

An inclusive and detailed view of C. P. Cavafy as a "World poet," tracing his critical reception, his translation history and his work's multiple interpretations around the globe, from the 1920s to the present.

Translated into many languages and in multiple editions, the poetry of C. P. Cavafy has attracted an international audience for nearly a century and, during the last three decades, has been unequivocally recognized as "world literature." This unprecedented volume clarifies, enriches and problematizes multiple facets of Cavafy's presence in the contemporary global literary sphere, while also drawing attention to its historical background through discussion of largely unknown material from the poet's library, archive and early critical reception.

Aside from having a strong global readership, Cavafy's work has been used by poets and artists all over the world as raw material for inspiration and re-translation into new cultural production. Some of his poems have assumed a universal and almost proverbial function in the global public sphere, whereas others have acquired new meanings and pertinence in specific historical, cultural and gender-related contexts, significantly different from their original conception.

With essays from 19 scholars and researchers from 6 countries, Cavafy as World Literature offers a collective and multi-dimensional overview of Cavafy's presence and function in world literature.

Review Quotes

"Most singular about Cavafy is his reception among world critics today. From a rather timid poet half-perceived in Lawrence Durrell's Justine or in E. M. Forster's Alexandria: A History and a Guide, today's Cavafy is constantly evoked not just as the most read and translated Greek poet but as a poet whose work rivals that of any 20th-century poet. As this volume goes to show, he may have been dead almost a century ago, but he is our contemporary in every way imaginable." --André Aciman, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, CUNY Graduate Center, USA, and author of Call Me by Your Name (2007)

About the Author

Takis Kayalis is Professor of Modern Greek Literature at the Hellenic Open University, Greece, and author of Cavafy's Hellenistic Antiquities: History, Archaeology, Empire (2023). He has served on the Cavafy Archive's International Academic Committee (Onassis Foundation) since 2017.

Vicente Fernández González is Associate Professor of Translation at the University of Malaga, Spain. His publications include a UNESCO-funded special issue of the literary journal Litoral dedicated to C. P. Cavafy (1999), La ciudad de las ideas (2001) and Málaga Cavafis Barcelona (2013). He is a member of the Cavafy Archive's International Academic Committee (Onassis Foundation).