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GREECE: Nikos Kazantzakis
John Gehl sends this bio of the Greek author and philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis (1885-1957), who is probably best known for the popular movie made from his novel, Zorba the Greek. Another of his earthy, realistic novels, The Greek Passion, was also made into a film. More controversial was his imaginative book-turned-into film, The Last Temptation of Christ, which prompted angry reactions from both the Roman Catholic Church, which banned it, and from the Greek Orthodox Church which excommunicated him. Perhaps his most ambitious work, however, was his 1938 verse tale, The Odyssey, a Modern Sequel, in which he explores the worldviews of Buddha, Jesus, Nietzsche, Lenin, and other notable historical figures. Among his many other contributions to modern Greek literature, Kazantzakis has produced lyric poetry, philosophic essays, travel books, tragedies, and modern Greek translations of such classics as Dante's Divine Comedy and Goethe's Faust.
Kazantzakis was born in Candia, Crete, at a time when the Greek island was
in revolt against the Ottoman Turks. Some of his youth was spent on the Greek
Island of Náxos, where his family had fled for safety. From 1902 until
1906, Kazantzakis studied law at the University of Athens, and for the two years
following he studied philosophy under Henri Bergson in Paris. After that he
traveled widely in Spain, England, Russia, Egypt, Palestine, and Japan. Before
World War II he settled on the island of Aegina, and after the war he served
as a minister in the Greek government. During the years 1947-48 he worked in
Paris for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO). He then moved to Antibes, France.
His early writing was more philosophical than literary, mostly attempts to
synthesize his thoughts about the many disparate worldviews expounded by the
philosophers he studied. He also sought to reconcile conflicts generated
by modern thought and traditional Christian and Buddhist views. Later his powers
as a poet and storyteller emerged to make him a best-selling author. Philosophic
themes were still his potent inspiration, but now he presented
them in literary dress so that his readers would relate to more comfortably.
For example, the Bergsonian notion of the elan vital was embodied in the exuberant
figure of Zorba, and the value of liberty was shown in the person
of the Cretan resistance fighter against Turkish domination. He considered The
Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, his epic poem of 33,333 lines, to be his masterpiece,
but recognized that he was better known for his novels. In 1956, he was awarded
the International Peace Award, and in 1957 he lost the Nobel Prize by a single
vote to the French writer Albert Camus. Kazantzakis died in 1957 in Germany
and is buried on one of the bastions of the Venetian fort surrounding Iraklion,
on the island of Crete.
Jon Kofas writes: "I agree with John Gehl's description of Kazantzakis,
and I am glad he brought this subject up. My older brother lives in Hania, Crete,
and I love that island almost as much as I enjoy Rhodes, which has a unique
history, just as fascinating. Years ago I have spent some time reading up on
the literary, artistic, and political contributions of the island, from El Greco
to Kazantzakis and Venizelos. Kazantzakis is indeed the best modern Greek philosopher/literary
figure who was profoundly influenced by the existentialist philosophical and
literary trends in the interwar era when T.S. Elliot, Hollow Men and Oswald
Sprengler, The Decline of the West were making an impact. My fellow Greek students
in Athens, as well as my fellow U.S. students in the late 1970s, were captivated
with Kazantzakis and other existentialists and Eastern philosophers. Was there
an urban college student in the 1970s who had not attended a session on ZEN
Buddhism or a forum on Indian philosophy? Kazantzakis' works became popular
amid the cultural revolution in the western world of the late 1960s and early
1970s, when young educated middle class people were questioning the political
status quo, western bourgeois values, and even the very foundations of western
civilization like Christianity. Sartre, Camus, Nietzsche, among other existentialist
thinkers were of interest to a generation questioning everything from the war
in Vietnam, to the white-minority regimes of southern Africa, and to Christianity,
which appeared to be identified with the political status quo and with a decadent
middle class society bent on materialism as a substitute for human happiness.
Kazantzakis had an interesting life, questioning marriage and sexuality, questioning
the ability of human transcendence, questioning all facets of faith while clinging
to it. Questioning the foundations of western civilization just as did many
of his contemporaries who lost faith in the rationalism of the Enlightenment
after the destruction of WWI followed by Communism, Fascism, and Nazism, Kazantzakis
tried to find that which fills the void in the spirit/intellect through writing
which gave meaning to an otherwise absurd existence. Like most Greeks at a time
of a collectivist peasant society not very different than Catholic Spain in
values, he was profoundly influenced by Christianity, but his view is closer
to Fyodor Dostoyevski's. The enduring quality of his work is that he raised
the issue of human alienation, and he tried to answer it by relying on a combination
of Buddhism, Christianity, and Existentialist thought. In both Zorba the Greek
and The Last Tempetation he raises questions about what matters in man's transcendent
spiritual life and in every day life, where meaning is not a priori, but it
has to be defined for the moment. His message remains as pertinent today as
when he wrote these works".
From Athens, Harry Papasotiriou writes: "I have not seen the film Zorba
the Greek, but I have read the book. It is an exuberant celebration of the street-smart
common folk, who through Zorba are portrayed as having a folksy wisdom and a
care-free zest for life that eludes the educated strata. This can be placed
in a tradition going back to Tolstoy: In War and Peace, for example, during
his captivity by the French the aristocratic Pierre meets a wise Russian peasant
and finds his remarks on various aspects of life very illuminating; the aristocratic
Moscovite Natasha is particularly charming when she dances a traditional Russian
folk dance in a house out in the country. Zorba the Greek must have been written
at a time when Kazantzakis was disillusioned by his philosophical quests. Other
works by Kazantzakis reflect different aspects of his thought, making him an
author who has touched on many subjects troubling humanity, or at least Europe,
in the grips of 20th century modernity".
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