Η διαμεσολάβηση της μούσας των Ελλήνων. Aνθολογίες νεοελληνικής ποίησης στη Μεγάλη Βρετανία, 1825-1900 = Mediating the Greek Muse. Anthologies of Modern Greek poetry in Great Britain, 1825-1900

This essay examines the cultural transfer of modern Greek poetry to Great Britain from 1825 to 1900. The study provides comprehensive documentation of British anthologies of modern Greek poetry published during this period, alongside other presentations of modern Greek poetry in various volumes and articles, exploring the interconnected themes of cultural transmission, translation practices, and the reception of Greek literature in the English-speaking world. The research demonstrates that in the 19th century the work of selecting, translating, and editing Modern Greek poetry represented a degree of continuity and had always been imbued with philhellenic political meanings. While these publications sought to generate sympathy for the Greeks, a few simultaneously promoted visions of modern Greece’s cultural reformation and political trajectory within the broader framework of British imperial considerations. Compilation methods reveal that mediation of Modern Greek literature was not unidirectional, but emerged from cross-border circulation of aesthetic ideas and the exchange of specific literary works among Greek, philhellenic, and European intellectual spheres. The study highlights the 1880s as a crucial turning point in British perceptions of Modern Greek poetry driven by two women writers. Florence M'Pherson and Elizabeth Edmonds countered the intellectual framework of a Hellenic ideal that often dismissed contemporary Greece, presenting Victorian audiences with a comprehensive portrait of nineteenth-century Greek poets that reinforced notions of modern Greeks’ intellectual advancement. In the same decade, however, Lucy M. J. Garnett and John S. Stuart Glennie’s collection of Greek popular songs shaped a primitivist image of culturally static Greeks. These three collections illuminate the fundamentally ambiguous Victorian perception of modern Greece.