Following the Axis' occupation of Greece in 1941, scores of Greeks fled the country, making their way to Syria and Palestine via Turkey, in what one journalist described as a 'reverse migration route' from Europe to the Middle East. The Greek government itself was in exile in Cairo, Egypt until 1944. My paper will examine the Greek literary production that came about from this wave of displacement, as well as the cultural political significance of this literary canon today. It will highlight an aspect of Europe’s political and cultural history that undermines currently dominant stereotypes of refugees and migration. 

The talk will offer a comparative analysis of texts produced by Greek authors displaced to Egypt and Palestine between 1941 and 1944. These texts include the diaries and poetry of Greek Nobel Laureate George Seferis, the poetry of Smyrna-born Ellie Papadopoulou, and the Drifting Cities trilogy of Greek Egyptian writer Stratis Tsirkas. It will also consider texts by Australian journalist Alan Moorehead and British novelist Olivia Manning, both of whom also chronicled their experience of the war in North Africa and the Middle East, and had very possibly brushed shoulders with their Greek counterparts.

The talk will explore the various ways that the experience of displacement is represented in these literary works, paying particular attention to how different literary representations might diverge or converge depending on genre, author experience and nationality. The essay contends that the first-hand experience of displacement has an effect on both the content and the form of these literary texts, and attempts to sketch out a literary ethics and aesthetics of displacement.