Ο Παπαδιαμάντης και η έννοια του δένδρου
Part of : Ελληνικά : φιλολογικό, ιστορικό και λαογραφικό περιοδικό σύγγραμμα ; Vol.44, No.1, 1994, pages 147-157
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147-157
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Ο Παπαδιαμάντης και η έννοια του δένδρου
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Υπό την βασιλιχήν δρυν (1901) ranks among Papadiamantis' most celebrated short stories and has elicited numerous and varied critical responses. Surprisingly, however, in view of the copious tree symbolism that runs through Papadiamantis' fiction, no attempt has been made to elucidate the text's elaborate arboreal symbolism in any historical context. Beginning with a cursory overview of contending approaches which have been adopted in analyses of the text, the present paper undertakes a reading of Υπό την βασιλιχήν δρυν, focusing with particular attention on the story's tree symbolism. Emphasis is placed in the paper on the ways in which the tree functions in Papadiamantis both as a historical reference point in an expansive cultural landscape, and as a mediating ground through which the narrator negotiates his relationship to the community and to a collective past. Papadiamantis' story explores the manner in which apparently natural phenomena, such as trees, are invested with multiple significance by society and become cultural symbols. This study argues in favour of a comparative approach to Papadiamantis' fiction and resists the formalist tendency to isolate the literary text from the cultural environment of its production and reception. Conversely, an attempt is made to demonstrate how the arboreal motif in Υπό την βασιλιχήν Spvv — a n d Papadiamantis' preoccupation with trees more generally— can only be fully understood in the light of wider discussions of trees that pervaded the fiction, travel writing and journalism of the period.
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