Peripheral (Post) Modernity: The Syncretist Aesthetics of Borges, Piglia, Kalokyris and Kyriakidis

by Eleni Kefala

Are there such things as peripheral modernity and postmodernity? This groundbreaking book focuses on the notions of modernity and postmodernity in two countries that never before have been studied Argentina and Greece. It examines theories of the postmodern and the problems involved in applying them to the hybrid and sui generis cultural phenomena of the «periphery». Simultaneously it offers an exciting insight into the work of Jorge Luis Borges, Ricardo Piglia, Dimitris Kalokyris and Achilleas Kyriakidis, whose syncretist aesthetics are symptomatic of the mixing up of different and often opposed aesthetic principles and traditions that occur in «peripheral» locations. This book will be very useful to scholars and students of Latin American, Modern Greek and comparative literature as well as to those interested in Borges studies.

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

A poet and academic from Cyprus. She has authored three poetry books, four monographs, one edited volume, and several refereed articles. Her monograph The Conquered was awarded the 2022 Edmund Keeley Prize. She is also the recipient of the State Prize for Poetry in her home country for her book Time Stitches (2014). The English translation of Time Stitches by Peter Constantine (Deep Vellum 2022) won the Elizabeth Constantinides Prize of the Modern Greek Studies Association and was a New York Times Globetrotting Pick. She served on the jury of the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Her latest poetry book Direct Orient was published in 2024. Her research offers cultural analyses of modernity across different periods, cultures, and disciplines. She was born in Athens, grew up in Cyprus, studied in Nicosia and Cambridge, and currently makes her home in Scotland, where she teaches Latin American and comparative literature at the University of St Andrews.