Kostas Karyotakis - Legacy and Karyotakism

Legacy and Karyotakism

Today, there is general agreement on the importance of Karyotakis’ work, despite the fact that, for a long period, it was undervalued on ideological grounds. Greek idealists as well as spokesmen for the Leftist movement reproached him for being both pessimistic and decadent and some contemporary writers (F. Skouras, A. Papadimas) considered him seriously neurotic and they tried to stifle the striking effect he had on the younger generation. Despite being labeled as a minor poet by critics and philologists until 1970, poets amongst the Communists and surrealists of the inter-war, post-war and later years nevertheless recognized his leading role in the shaping of modern Greek poetry.

The writing of Karyotakis, was characterized by his own personal language similar to that of Constantine P. Cavafy, which adopted verbal acrobatics between archaism and demotic language, as well as a deep pessimism, which is usually inflected by irony and set a fashion for melancholy and sardonic verse that became known as Karyotakism. Poets who adopted his style increased, especially after his swan song Elegies and Satires (1927), with followers such as Angheliki Varvitsiotis-Konti, Spyros Gouskos and Sotos Skoutaris.