This course introduces students to the European literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, examining the role of translation in shaping European literatures and Modern Greek literature. Through representative works read in Greek translation, students explore major literary movements, influential authors and their historical and cultural contexts. Particular attention is paid to the reception of European literature in Greece, the Greek tradition of literary translation and the contribution of translators as cultural mediators. The course highlights the creative relationships between European and Modern Greek literature, emphasising translation as a central means of literary exchange and cultural transmission.

The course aims to familiarise students with the principal developments in European literary history and to foster an understanding of the crucial role of translation in the circulation of literary works, ideas and forms.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
• identify the major periods and developments in European literary history;
• describe the principal literary movements from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century;
• relate literary works to their historical and cultural contexts;
• understand the role of translation in the circulation of literary ideas and forms;
• recognise significant aspects of the Greek tradition of literary translation;
• critically examine literary texts in Greek translation;
• understand the relationships between European and Modern Greek literature.

Week 1: The Concept of European Literature. Europe as a literary space. The concept of literary tradition. The role of translation.

Week 2: Translation and the Formation of European Literatures. Translation as cultural mediation. National literatures and cross-cultural exchanges.

Week 3: The Middle Ages and Dante. The Divine Comedy. The earliest Greek translations of Dante.

Week 4: The Renaissance and Humanism. Petrarch. Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre.

Week 5: Classicism and the Enlightenment. Rationalism and literature. The dissemination of Enlightenment ideas.

Week 6: Pre-Romanticism and Romanticism. Goethe and Schiller. The emergence of the literary subject.

Week 7: Philhellenism and Greece. Byron, Shelley, Lamartine and Foscolo. The Heptanese School of literature.

Week 8: Realism and Naturalism. Nineteenth-century European prose fiction and its influence in Greece.

Week 9: Symbolism and Aestheticism. Baudelaire, Verlaine and Mallarmé. The reception of Symbolism in Greece.

Week 10: The Avant-Gardes and Modernism. Apollinaire and Marinetti. Dada and Surrealism.

Week 11: Twentieth-Century European Poetry. Rilke, Lorca, T. S. Eliot and Montale.

Week 12: Twentieth-Century European Prose Fiction. Joyce, Kafka, Virginia Woolf and Calvino.

Week 13: Review and Synthesis. The place of translation in European literary history. European literature and Modern Greek literary tradition.

Core Bibliography
• Ευρωπαϊκά Γράμματα. Ιστορία της Ευρωπαϊκής Λογοτεχνίας [European Letters: A History of European Literature], Vols. I–III, Sokolis Publishers.
• Νεότερη Ευρωπαϊκή Λογοτεχνία. Ανθολόγιο μεταφράσεων [Modern European Literature: An Anthology of Translations], edited by Nasos Vayenas and Takis Kayalis.

Supplementary Bibliography
• Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature.
• Claudio Guillén, The Challenge of Comparative Literature.
• David Damrosch, What Is World Literature?
• Selected Greek translations of European literary works.

The course combines lectures, close reading and discussion of selected literary texts. Teaching methods include comparative readings of original works and their Greek translations, where feasible, analysis of translation choices, and case studies drawn from the history of Greek literary translation. Classroom discussion encourages critical engagement with literary texts and their historical and cultural contexts.

Digital teaching materials, online bibliographical resources and digital collections of literary texts and translations are used to support teaching and learning. The OpenCourses platform is used to distribute course materials and facilitate communication with students.

Final written examination (100%). The examination may include essay questions, commentary on literary excerpts, identification of literary movements, short comparative exercises involving translations, and brief discussion of selected translation issues.