Greek Folk Song: What does it mean to us today?

Although they have undergone corruption at an early stage, have been ideologically exploited and are currently being undermined by shallow imitations, Greek folk songs still move the audience and stir the interest of literary scholars. Many are the areas which deserve thorough study and call for a fresh approach: the songs’ language and motifs, their narrative techniques, their syntax in its analogy to that of earlier forms of Greek poetic language, their relationship to the learned Greek poetry as well as to the folk poetry of neighboring nations, their spirit as reflected in the kleftika, the emigrant songs or the songs of lament and love, and their boldness in dealing with experiences of extreme intensity, especially in the type known as paraloge. 

Speakers
Grigoris Sifakis, Professor Emeritus of Ancient Greek Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and New York University
Alexis Politis, Professor Emeritus of Modern Greek Literature, University of Crete
Pantelis Boukalas, Writer, Journalist

Chair
Stavros Zoumboulakis, President of the Supervisory Council of the National Library of Greece

Reading
Kostas Filippoglou, Actor