A war, a genocide or even an assassination, organized or individual phenomena of violence and imposition in history that is, they feed timeless literary texts.

Common denominator at the core of all, are the elements of violence and domineering attitudes, which the writer’s pen seeks to negotiate, discover and explain. How these phenomena are reflected in literature, from the 12th century to the present day, will be examined at an International Scientific Meeting that will take place online over the next three days.

This is the event themed “Violence and power: traces in the body of literature“, organized by the Department of Modern Greek and Comparative Studies of the Department of Philology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with the participation of more than 80 delegates (academics, researchers, and PhD candidates, from Greece and abroad) and open access to all.

“Violence and power are major themes in literature, from ancient tragedy to the present day. Obviously in recent years – and with the so-called literature of the crisis, they are themes that the historical moment itself has highlighted“, the Associate Professor of General and Comparative Literature of the Department of Philology of the University of Athens states to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency. and member of the Organizing and Scientific Committee of the Conference, Ioanna Naum.

From how Primo Levi captures the violence of the death camps and the Holocaust through the eyes of a survivor or Ilias Venezis the war violence and the Asia Minor Catastrophe, to Kafka and his Penal Colony, which touches on even more recent issues and more indirect logics of mass control, the topics that will concern the conference are varied.

“In essence, the theme radiates into what we would call direct and visible violence, which has to do with phenomena such as war, exile, forced displacement, punishment, torture, imprisonment and sexual control or sexual violence. But all this is followed by the violence exerted on the body and speech, not always by some visible source or authority, but also in more indirect ways and this brings us to the second “umbrella”, which is the indirect exercise of violence, i.e. the ways with which many times, without realizing it, violence is diffused, dispersed and incorporated by ourselves and repeated“, explains Ms. Nahum.

On the other hand, according to her, it is also an interdisciplinary conference, as violence and power is something that has concerned not only literary scholars, but equally concerns political sciences, sociology, anthropology and certainly also the newer theoretical approaches.

Among the sessions, there is also an inter-artistic one, which, in addition to literature, examines how these phenomena are reflected in other arts, such as visual arts or cinema.

The work of the Scientific Meeting will take place online on the three days of November 24-26, while in the two online rooms where it will be held from Friday morning, access will be open for anyone who wants to watch it at the following link: