Proceedings paper given at the "Whither Greek-Australian Poetry"
conference, La Trobe University , City Campus, in December 2003
Introduction
The short account given here is a brief excerpt covering initial aspects of Greek language literature on the fairly new electronic medium of the Internet. We look at the early attempts of the hopeful literature expert in promoting literary works on the Internet, as well as touch on some of the exciting rewards which awaited them.
Background
"Periods of history when values undergo a fundamental shift are certainly not unprecedented" was a statement used by Vaclav Haven at Philadelphia in 1994 in a speech titled "The need for Transcendence in the Post-modern World". - One such period of history is the revolution in communication which was brought about by the ease of spreading the Internet bound word.
The words of Douglas Kellner in an article titled «Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture» (2001) go like this: «From the 1960s on... literary-formalist textual analysis has been enhanced by methods derived from semiotics, a system for investigating the creation of meaning not only in written languages but also in other, nonverbal codes, such as the visual and auditory languages of film and TV».
We dare add Internet literature to the categories of visual and auditory languages herein, hence in semiotics.
Greek Literature on the Internet
The history of the Internet goes back some decades and it is a platform where communication between writers and/or their publishers has become a reality at a low cost and it is something that can be mastered after a relatively small amount of training.
But the Internet is more than a communication tool; it is also a storage area for any form of literature such as written word, picture, sound, video or a combination of the above; the written word being the most common.
Concentrating on the subject of Greek Literature on the Internet the technological transformation appears to have revolutionised the exchange of ideas. Prior to 1994 there was hardly any Greek literature on the Internet for one main reason: That is Microsoft, the electronics giant, had not developed the Windows Operating System which revolutionized electronic language processing with its ability to display and control languages other than English. Microsoft released Windows ’95 in August 1995. This OS succeeded the development of language coding practice standards in 1992 by the Internet Society. The McIntosh Operating System by Apple is another example of the times which brought about multi-lingual electronic page to reality.
Initially nobody from the Greek literary community thought of the possibilities of Greek literature expanding into this new medium at the time, or if they did they had neither the tools nor the necessary skills. The Internet was simply not seen as a platform based on which Greek literature can acquire an immediate world-wide audience.
Pioneers of such a vision were very few and in the Greek community of Diaspora they were even fewer. In 1996 the first timid attempts to become global with Greek literature was made by two web-sites of the Diaspora, one in Canada and the other in Australia which appeared almost concurrently. There were other attempts at promoting Greek literature on the Internet mainly from the USA , which were dated about the same time, but due to the fact that they did not survive the test of time, it was difficult to trace.
The Canadian web-site "The Land of Gods" was founded by Mr Kostas Douridas in October 1996 (web-address: http://www.durabond.ca/gdouridas ). To this present day the web-site adheres to its original structure and content, whereas the second in Australia was designed and developed by myself in June 1996 carrying the title "Literature Spot" (web-address: initially http://www.tripod.com/~glits and later http://www.vicnet.net.au/~hwaa/ ).
Today the most comprehensive Greek literature web-site on the Internet remains that of Kostas Douridas with thousands of connections to many other similar pages mainly within the Hellenic State ’s boundaries. These pages contain a wide spectrum of early as well as contemporary Greek writers, like "Απομνημονεύματα των Κολοκοτρώνη και Μακρυγιάννη" (Kolokotroni’s and Makrygianni’s memoirs), Nobel Prize winner Odysseas Elytis’ works, as well as large samples of the works of Konstantine Kavafi’s, Andreas Kalvos, Nikos Kazantzakis, Nikiforos Brettakos, Giorgos Seferis (another Nobel Prize winner) and many more.
These pages also contain an electronic literary journal by the name of "Ηλεκτρονικό Περιοδικό Λογοτεχνίας και Πολιτισμού" (Electronic Journal for Literature and Culture) where several current day writers appear with a number of extracts from their works and correspondence with prominent members of Greek writers and scientists abroad as well as news and events in the Greek language literary world.
In contrast "Literature Spot" in Australia , although bi-lingual (in Greek and English) has never remained the same nor settled in the same server. The contents of its pages were mainly concerned with Greek Literature by first generation migrant writers to Australia and later developed into the tribune of the Hellenic Writers’ Association with the journal "O Logos" issue 11 taking much of the content early in 1998. That year "O Logos" and the site of the Hellenic Writers’ Association had also moved to its new permanent place at Vicnet (www.vicnet.net.au/~hwaa/), an organization set up and funded by the Victorian Government for the purposes of supporting the various Victorian Communities as well as providing Internet and Networking services.
These HWAA pages contained since 1998 bi-lingual extracts from the printed edition of the journal "O Logos" - published by Hellenic Writers’ Association, photographs and other information about functions and activities of the group, as well as a list of writers and their works published into a printed catalogue by the Australian-Hellenic Progressive Association (AHEPA) in conjunction with the Greek-Australian Archives Museum of RMIT University and several other participating organizations including HWAA in 1999, then in 2000, in 2002 and 2005.
Since 1998 literature pages of Diaspora have multiplied with several web-sites making their appearance in a variety of countries:
United States of America - "Magical Journey to Greece " by Mr Apostolos Michailides in the USA (since 1998, recent web-address www.mjourney.com), "Elliniki Biblio8iki Notiou Kalifornias" (Greek Library of Southern California, www.greeklibrary.agrino.org) by Mr Christos Neofytou (since 2001)
South American countries - Mr Stratos Doukakis’ "Aiolos" from Venezuela (since 2001 at web-address www.aeolos.net)
Canada - "Hyphen" in Canada by Sam Castrinos (since 2000, web-address www.greekamericanbiz.com/hyphen), "Alphabito" (Alphabet) by Mr George Zoumpos in the USA (since 2000),
Australia - "Phorminx" journal in South Australia which includes communal issues (since 2002), "Australian Greek Network" (www.ausgreeknet.com) by Mr Nick Moraitis (since 2002) and more recently the "Anagnostis" electronic journal by Mr Nick Moraitis again (web-address: www.anagnostis.info), and even more recently the Society of Ancient Hellenic Studies at www.sahs.tk and the Greek-Australian Cultural League’s trial web-pages at www.vicnet.net.au/~gacl1970
European countries - such as Vaios Fasoulas with "Ellines Syggrafeis tis Diasporas" (Greek Writers of Diaspora at www.fasoulas.de) from Germany (since 2000), ‘Sofia Times’ magazine in Bulgaria controlled by Greek Students in Bulgaria (www.sofiatimes.com)
Japan - by Dr Klairi Papapaulou, who published Seminar papers for Japanese Culture in the Greek language (web-address: unknown).
These are some examples of Diaspora’s Greek literature as well as other Greek cultural pages which appeared on the Internet, most towards the end of the 20th Century.
However after the initial enthusiasm in accepting the new medium as a tool of exposure to the global arena, the originators of Greek language literature page development on the Internet, outside of mainland Greece , have started losing interest.
Negatives
In general the Internet besides its positive contributes it brings about cultural conflicts, more dangerous than at any time in the history of the world. Co-existence needs to be redefined, due to serious consequences that are brought forth by this sudden ease of communication. Besides the Internet as it stands does not appear as the greatest tool in improving intercultural communication despite its abilities of translation and communal spirit.
Trust and authenticity remain continuously in dispute as the digital age has brought with it an air of uncertainty and questionable credibility and realities.
Conclusion
As a conclusion and after decades of personal involvement with Internet technology, I can safely assume that the medium not only plays an extremely significant part in communications, but that in the not too distant future it is also going to become the place where if a writer is not present they do not exist for the global literary community.
The new technology acts as a transition process between itself and conventional means of defining creation as the new method in semiotics. In addition it places a fantastic barrier to the spread of inequality because of colour, race, age or creed thus bringing generations of peoples with common interests together.
As culture is not set in concrete and it changes with the movement of population, the Internet adapts to this environment, transforms into something closer to the needs as it affects technology directly; professed and actual identity values and language evolution is varying constantly. It can therefore be described as the homeland of expression (hence literature) in the global village, parallel to homeland as in country of birth or country of permanent residency…
References
"The Land of Gods ", Kostas Douridas, www.durabond/gdouridas/ (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,2004,2005)
"Hellenic Writers’ Association of Australia", Iakovos Garivaldis, www.vicnet.net.au/~hwaa/ (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
"Post Multiculturalism?", Gill Bottomley (1994) pp 59-69
"Jack Condon: On The Study of Intercultural Communication", William Kelly, Department of Communication and Journalism, University of New Mexico (1999)
"Multiple Traditions and the question of cultural integration", Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ethnos no 3-4 (1992)
"Ethnicity versus Nationalism", Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Journal for Peace Research, vol 28, no. 3 (1991)
"The need for Transcendence in the Post Modern World", Vaclav Havel, Philadelphia (1994)
iakovos@gmail.com
© Iakovos Garivaldis