Dissertation title:

“The versification of Cavafy’s poetry”

Supervisor: Evripidis Garantoudis

The main objectives of the dissertation are the detailed examination of the versification of Cavafy’s poetry and the connection between metrical features of his poems and general characteristics of his poetry. The study of the metrical and rhythmical construction of Cavafy’s poems (Repudiated, Hidden, Unfinished poems and the poems of the Canon) shows the gradual transformation of the morphological means and the progress of Cavafy’s versification from his first appearance in Modern Greek Literature until his latest poems. Furthermore, a complex web of similarities and differences is formed, because the functional relationship between the poet’s morphological choices and the means of expression andconsequently the relationship between the morphological choices and the meaning of the poems is very often an important factor for the formation of Cavafy’s poetry. The consideration of the research results ultimately enables us to evaluate the fundamental role of the form in configuration of Cavafy’s poetryand at the same time, we have the opportunity to review the contribution of Cavafy’s versification to the general change of the versification in Greek poetry during a crucial time period, at the end of the traditional verse form and before the advent of free verse.

Dimitra Razaki / Department of Philology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens