Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

In 1946 Elias Venezis, a renowned Greek prose-writer of the Generation of the ʼ30s, publishes his only play, entitled Block C. The drama, written after the end of the Axis Occupation of Greece (1941-1944) and on the brink of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), was also staged at the National Theatre a year earlier, in 1945. Block C takes place in a prison cell in German-occupied Athens and brings together Greek citizens from diverse ideological and economic backgrounds: a patriotic colonel, an idealist communist, a pessimistic diplomat, an inexperienced University student and an ingenious small-time crook. Although the prisoners are waiting to be executed and make light, in their dialogue, of the violence during the war, Venezis seems to focus more on the communal aspect of the Greek society and the political and national challenges that would rise after the Liberation. Despite their differences, the characters strive for a sense of inclusive heritage, in the same way that Greek society was challenged to renew its cultural and political identity after the war. Moreover, Venezi’s realistic play (written in an era when Greek theatrical modernism rises) comes in contrast to the anti-realistic plays of many other playwrights of the same era, such as Giorgos Theotokas and Vasilis Rotas, who turned to folk heritage in order to reconstruct a sense of belonging for the Greek people. The study examines the strive for communal social reconfiguration in Greece in the aftermath of the Axis Occupation through the lens of Modern Greek Drama.