Διαβάζοντας το "Confiteor"

I suspect it is no coincidence that the text begins with Andrias walking on the "wet streets of Valkarka" (11) and ends with the phrases: "I turned on the television and the weatherman, with a sleepy tone, assured me that in the coming hours the temperature would drop sharply and sporadic rainfall would occur" (703). Is a new Flood coming to exterminate the now global barbarism imposed on peoples by the dominance of financial markets? "Peoples suffer from some fatal political illness," writes Vico.

The flowers of Evil continue to grow. The ideology of Nazism is now electing governments in Europe. Millions of people are now wandering homeless due to coldly calculated wars of conquest. The answer to little Amelia's why was not given. The question remains. Confiteor. Mea culpa.

Reading Vico, however, I understood that the connection between the narrative structure and the conceptual canvas in Confiteor lies precisely in the act of its writing. Because literature, like art, "is a dynamic line, which starts from the caves of the Valtorta gorge and is not yet complete, as humanity continues to exist" (448). This position also justifies the writing of poetry after Auschwitz. In the gap that opens between the signifier and the signified, in the face of the open, gaping prospect of a new era of barbarism, the unspeakable will always await its expression.

J. P.

Gina Politou was born in 1930. She received her Doctorate in English Literature from Cambridge University, where she also taught for many years. She is a Life Fellow of Churchill College and an Emeritus Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

For her contribution to the field of literary criticism and culture, and her long years of teaching, she was honored in 1998 by the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas with the Award for Excellent Research and Teaching. In 2007, for her book On Sin, Passion, and Other Matters, the magazine Diavazo awarded her the Essay Award. In 2011, the Society of Greek Writers honored her with the "Dido Sotiriou" award for her scientific and theoretical work. In 2012, the Benaki Museum honored her for her long-standing contribution to critical thought.

Her books and studies on English, Greek, and comparative literature have been published in Greece and abroad. In addition to her academic studies, she regularly contributes to newspapers and magazines on social and political current affairs.