Karkavitsas, Andreas

Andreas Karakavitsas was born in 1865 in the town of Lehena in Elis . Andreas was the first child in the family of Dimitris Karkavitsas and Anna Skalts. 9 more children followed, including Konstantinos Karkavitsas (1871-1959), who also became a writer. Received primary education in his town. Since 1878 he continued his studies at the First Gymnasium of the city of Patras . At the gymnasium, he showed interest in ancient Greek mythology and in modern Greek literature, especially to the poets of the Semi-Isle . In 1879, due to illness, he interrupted his studies for 6 months. He graduated from high school in 1882. During this period he began to write his first poems. In 1883 he entered the University of Athens , at the Faculty of Medicine. Since 1884 he began to actively engage in writing. In October, he wrote his first story, Asimo. He also began to write his own Armatolos . In December, he prepared for publication his first poetry collection Απαρχαί (Aparché has no direct correspondence in Russian. In a free translation it means the beginning, the first steps, the debut), which, however, has never been published. At the same time, Karkavitsas published his first folklore works. In 1885, his story “Asimo” was published in the magazine “Evdomada” (Week), which served as a reason for Karkavitsas to get acquainted with the circle of writers published in the journal: K. Palamas , K. Hadzopoulos , G. Xenopoulos and others. Since 1887, Karkavitsas began working with the Athens newspaper Nea Efimerida (Novaya Gazeta) as a reporter and signs his reports under the pseudonym Petros Avramis. The marriage in the same year of his beloved and countrywoman, Yolanda Vasiliadi, shocked Karkavitsas and the echoes of this love disappointment can be traced in his future story “Λυγερή” (Ligeri - Slender). Before the Resurrection of Christ, Karkavitsas went for a month to Dorida . The trip gave him folklore material and aroused his interest in the history of the War of Independence of 1821-1829. On the eve of Christmas (in the new style) in 1888, Karkavitsas completed his studies at the university and received a medical degree.

The first 6 months of 1889, Karkavitsas served as a military paramedic in one of Attica's garrisons. In June, he received the rank of junior lieutenant of the medical service and a few days later was transferred to the island of Kerkyra . During this period, he began to write his story “Ligeri” (Slim), which from April 1990 began to be published in sequels in the Athenian newspaper “Estia” (Hearth). In May 1890, Karakavitsas was transferred to the garrison of the city of Mesolongion and soon Estia began publishing his essays on trips to the mountains around Navpakt . In January 1891, Karkavitsas received a vacation, which he used to get a specialty pathologist. In May, Karkavitsas was transferred to the garrison of Larisa . On June 23 of the same 1891, Karkavitsas was demobilized.

The first months after the demobilization, Karkavitsas used to travel around the Peloponnese , which gave him material for a number of essays. On October 5, 1891, Karkavitsas was admitted by a doctor to the Athens merchant ship. The impressions of Karkavitsas about his service at sea are reflected in his diary “In the East and in the West”, which Estia published in 47 sequels, from February 15 to April 5, 1892. In April 1893, in an interview with D. Hadzopoulos , Karkavitsas announced his credo in the language issue:

“From Dimotika we will use words that are understandable to everyone, and to people of salons and people of mountains. We will supplement them with the words Kafarevus , which, thus, will exist in Dimotiki. "

In 1894, the shipping company which owned Athens went bankrupt. Karkavitsas tried to help unemployed sailors with his articles.

From May to November 1895, Karkavitsas served as a doctor in the village of Abliani Evritania . Here he studies Homer and began writing to write his Beggar.

At the same time, Karkavitsas, being a supporter of the liberation of the Greek lands remaining under Ottoman control right up to the borders of the Byzantine Empire , joined the secret organization National Aetheria, which was preparing military actions in the Ottoman territories of Crete , Epirus and Macedonia .

In 1896, Estia began to print The Beggar in 26 sequels.

In September 1896, Ligeri came out as a separate book ^[2] . In October, A Beggar was published as a separate book.

At the end of 1896, Karkavitsas returned to Amia and was sent to the garrison of Volos . In January 1897, Karkavitsas published the article “Strong Sex” in support of the feminism movement. In February of the same year and with the beginning of the next Cretan uprising , Karkavitsas volunteered to enter the expeditionary force sent to Crete under the command of Colonel Timoleon Vassos . Karkavitsas remained in Crete until May 11, 1897. In April 1898, under the pseudonym Petros Avramis, Karkavitsas took part in the literary competition Estia and received a prize for the story Easter in the Seas. Since the end of April, Karkavitsas was transferred to one of Attica's garrisons. At the end of the year, Karkavitsas took part in the army's efforts to return Thessaly to Greek control. In 1899, Karkavitsas entered into an ideological conflict with K. Palamas and G. Xenopoulos, as a result of which he ceased to cooperate with their journal Techni (Art). In April 1899, the first edition of the collection of his marine stories “Λόγια της πλώρης” (free translation of “Speech of the Deck of a Tank”) ^{[3] took place} . The core of 20 stories of the collection were the writer's impressions in the period 1892-1893, when he worked on the ship Athens. In November 1900, Karkavitsas was transferred to the island of Lefkada . In December of that year, a collection of his 15 short stories, Old Love, was released (here plural love). In 1902, Karkavitsas was transferred to the Greek-Turkish border in Thessaly . In 1903, Karkavitsas was transferred to Athens . In the Greek capital, he writes in the journal Numas, under the pseudonym Petros Aramis, taking part in a heated debate on the language issue and speaking in favor of Dimotika . At the same time, he wrote the novel "Archaeologist", which addresses the theme of the strange war of 1897 ^[4] . In 1904, Karkavitsas took part in the creation of the movement "National Language". Since 1905, Karkavitsas has been working in recruiting stations, which gave him the opportunity, in addition to Thessaly, to visit the Cyclades islands . In 1908, Karkavitsas took part in the creation of the “Laographic Eteria” (Folklore Society). In 1909, while on the island of Skiathos on business, Karkavitsas met with the writer Alexander Papadiamantis . In the same year, Karkavitsas joined the revolutionary officer "Military Union", led by Colonel Nikolai Zorbas and took part in the officer movement, referred to in the historiography "Revolution in Goody." In 1910, Karkavitsas took part in the "Educational Society", together with Ion Dragumis and Lorendzos Mavilis . In January 2011, Karkavitsas received a promotion and was awarded a silver cross.

With the start of the Balkan Wars in 1912, Karkavitsas was sent to the Thessaloniki Front , where he served in field surgical operations. From November 1912 to January 1913, Karkavitsas served in the military hospital of the Macedonian capital, the city of Thessaloniki . After the Greek victories over the Bulgarian army in the Second Balkan War , Karkavitsas worked on the islands of Lesvos and Chios . After the outbreak of World War I, the National Schism of 1916 caused Karkavitsas doubts about the correctness of the actions of E. Venizelos . Taking the side of the monarchists, Karkavitsas was arrested in Thessaloniki by supporters of Venizelos, and then was transferred to prison in Athens . Karkavitsas was released in 1917, but his stay in prison and dampness contributed to his tuberculosis. He was sent to a tuberculosis sanatorium on Mount Pendelicon near Athens. In December 1917, Karkavitsas was temporarily demobilized for health reasons.

In 1918, Karkavitsas met Despina Sotiriou, with whom he cohabited in the suburbs of Athens, Amarusion . Remaining bedridden by his illness, Karkavitsas wrote 3 reading textbooks for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades of an elementary school. At the same time, he published an augmented short story collection, “Speech of the Deck of a Tank”. Since 1919, the Greek army fought with the Kemalists during the Asia Minor campaign . In September 1920, Karkavitsas received a promotion and returned to the army as chief physician, but was left at the capital’s hospitals. In 1921, many works of Karkavitsas were reprinted. At the same time, the collection of stories was published. In May 1922, Karkavitsas resigned of his own free will. In June, his collection "Tales of Our Babies" was published, and in July, the collection "Stories of a Knapsack." In August, betrayed by its allies in the Entente, the Greek army was forced to leave not only Ionia and Smyrna , but under pressure from the allies was forced to leave East Thrace without a fight ^[5] . A few months before his death, Karkavitsas became convinced that Constantinople did not become Greek again. The writer died in Amarussion on October 24, 1922, from tuberculosis. According to other sources, due to laryngeal cancer .

Karkavitsas was one of three prominent representatives of everyday life in Greek literature of the late 19th century, along with Alexander Papadiamantis and George Viziinos . At the same time, he was the main representative of naturalism in Greek literature of the late XIX — early XX centuries. It is noteworthy that Karkavitsas, in works with surprisingly different themes, displays the world and language of his characters. In The Beggar, he depicted the world of a backward Thessaly village, with its prejudices, freely using the idiomatic Thessaly dialect ^[6] . In “Speech of the Deck of a Tank,” as Miltiad Malakasis put it , “the feather of Karkavitsas raises the world of sailors on the foam of a wave” ^[7] . In this book of Karkavitsas, one of the best books of Greek marine painting, there is romance and the curse of the sea, likening the sea to the woman’s liking, the sister of Alexander of Macedon , who became a mermaid and sinking ships, when the sailors tell her that Alexander is dead, a vision of the Greek sailor, that the petrified emperor Constantine The paleologist will rise again when Constantinople becomes Greek again, shipwrecks, exotic, dangerous work of Greek sponge catchers in the waters of North Africa. Describing the world of Greek sailors, Karkavitsas successfully uses the terminology of the sailing and steam fleets, successfully uses the idiomatic dialect of various Greek islands and coastal regions and the specific argo of sailors. In November 1922, just a few weeks after the death of Karkavitsas, Costis Palamas, one of the greatest poets of modern Greece wrote:

“And if any strange judge of merits would force me to make a choice exclusively between Papadiamantis and Karkavitsas, I would stand reverently and with my head uncovered in front of the first, kiss my hand and stop my choice on the second” ^[8] .

• Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας. Λόγια της Πλώρης. - Μοντέρνοι Καιροί, 2004. - ISBN 960-397-801-9 .

• Andréas Karkavítsas (neopr.) . Encyclopædia Britannica . Date of treatment February 17, 2018.
• Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας - Το κόνισμα (Greek) . users.uoa.gr. Date of treatment February 17, 2018.