Associate Professor Vrasidas Karalis

Chair of Modern Greek Studies Department
723 Brennan MacCallum Building

+61 2 9351 7252

For the last 20 years, my main area of research has been in Modern Greek, Byzantine, Cultural Studies and more recently New Testament Studies. I have also worked in translation, especially of the Australian Nobel Laureate Patrick White and translated three of his major novels into Greek (Voss, The Vivisector, A Cheery Soul).

Furthermore, my Australian involvement can be seen in the number of public lectures I have been invited to offer in Greek-Australian or mainstream Australian venues. I believe that our area of studies has to be gradually incorporated within the mainstream dominant environment and go beyond its introverted ghetto mentality. For my services I received the Federation Medal from the Federal Government in 2003.

• Petros Vlastos: Works, Critical Edition with Introduction and Notes by V.K., two volumes, Ourani Foundation, Athens, (scheduled to appear by early 2009)
• Patrick White, The Vivisector: Introduction, Translation, Notes by V.K., Ideogramma Press, Athens, (to be realeased by the end of 2008)
• Martin Heidegger and the Aesthetics of Living (editor) (to be released in 2008)

Books

• Michael Psellos, Chronography, vol. 1. Athens, Agrostis Publications, 1992 (pp. 403). The first translation into Modern Greek of one of the greatest (and most difficult) literary and historical works of Byzantium, with a long introduction (pp. 11-35) and critical notes. Fifteen reviews have so far appeared in the Athenian press and periodical literature, ranging from favourable to very favourable.
• Michael Psellos, Chronography, vol 2. Athens, Agrostis Publications, 1993, (pp. 515). The second volume of the work with original notes, extensive bibliography, indices and a lengthy Epilogue (p. 469-503). Eight reviews appeared in the Athenian press - seven of them being extremely positive and one poisonously negative.
• A Study of the poem Mikra Syrtis (1956) of Zisimos Lorentzatos, Domos Publications, Athens 1993, (pp. 60). Two reviews of the short study appeared, one of them positive and the second a personal attack.
• Nikos Kazantzakis and the Palimpsest of History, Kanakis Publications, Athens, 1995, (pp. 309). A lengthy study of one of the most important Modern Greek writers with special attention on his ideas about History, Culture, Writing and Hellenism. So far, three reviews have appeared, all of them favourable.
• Michael Doukas, Turco-Byzantine History, (The Chronicle of the Fall of Constantinople), Kanaki Publications, Athens, 1997 (pp. 650). A translation with extensive notes and an interpretive 75 pages long introduction of one of the most important books of Byzantine Historiography.
• Leo the Deacon, Histories, Introduction-translation-notes, by V. K., Athens Kanakis Publications, December 2000, pages 450.
• Reading Dionysios Solomos, Ideogramma Publications, Athens, 2002, p. 178
• Essay on Andreas Aggelakis, Odos Panos Publications, Athens 2003, p. 83

Book Chapters

• "History of the Greek Orthodox Church After 1453," The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity, Ken Parry (ed), Blackwell Publishing, p 156-186.
• "The Body Beautiful: Representations of the Body from Classical Antiquity to Athens 2004," in Back To Olympia, The Olympic games Across Four Millennia, Steve Georgakis (ed.), Joba Press, Sydney, 2004, p. 130-146.
• "The Unreality of Repressed Desires in Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel The Last Temptation of Christ," in Scandalising Jesus, Darren Midlletton and Oeter Bean (eds), Continuum, London, 2005, p. 164-183.

Articles

• C.P. Cavafy and the Poetics of the Innocent Form, Modern Greek Studies (Australia & New Zealand, vol. 11-12, 2003/2004, p. 152-164.
• "Introduction to the Critical Publication of Kostes Palamas," Life Immovable, Athens, ideogramma, 2004, p. 9-53.
• "The Neopagan Modernity of Symbols in Shakespeare’s Hamlet", DIAVAZO, March 2004, p. 97-100.
• "George Ioannou and the poetry of conscious sinfulness," DIAVAZO, June, 2004. p. 75-80.
• "Psycho-readings and Psycho-narratives of critical discourse: Palamas readings of Solomos," DIAVAZO, July/August 2004. p. 119-124.
• "Erotokritos’ double language," DIAVAZO, 454, September 2004.
• "The poetics of Deep Image and the langauge of kenosis in Athos Dimoulas’ Poetry," The Proceedings of 5 Biennaula Conference of Greek research in Australia, Flinders University, Adelaide, 2005, p. 135-163.
• "The City as the topos and the habitus of Modernity in the poetry of Michael Dransfield," Literature & Aesthetics, The Journal pf the Sydney Society of Literataure and Aesthetics, December, 2005, vol. 15. No 2, p. 217-226.
• "Mr Gurdjieff’s Legacy," in Before Pangaea, new Essays in transcultural Aesthetics, edited by Eugenio Benitez, Special issue of The Journal of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics, vol 15, no 1, p.252-266.
• "Notes on the Utopian and Chthonic Semiotics of the Jindyworobaks," International Association of Aesthetics Yearbook, vol. 10, Amsterdam, pp. 115-125.
• "On Nikos Kazantzakis' statement that "We do not fight our dark passions with a sober, bloodless, neutral virtue which rises above passion, but with other, more violent passion"," Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand), Sydney, pp. 129-141.
• "Patrick White and the Great Code of Hellenism," Literature & Aesthetics, volume 16, issue 1, pp. 173-192.
• "The Disjunctive Aesthetics of Myth and Empathy in Theo Angelopoulos' Ulysses Gaze," Literature & Aesthetics vol. 16, issue 2, pp. 201-214.
• "The Poetics of Hieronymy in the Work of William Butler Yeats," Nea Estia, vol. 162, issue 1803, Septmber 2007, pp. 414-431.

Teaching

• MGRK1601: Junior Modern Greek 1
• MGRK1602: Junior Modern Greek 2
• MGRK2631: Cultural Identities
• MGRK2653: Sex, Drugs and Music in Modern Greek Culture
• MGRK2675: New Testament Greek and its World A
• MGRK2676: New Testament Greek and its World B

Supervision - Current

• Uros Todorovic, The Relevance of Late Byzantine Art to Contemporary Artistic Movements
• Afroditi Vassos, The teaching of Greek as a second language
• Catherine Cassis-Liaros, the Poetics of Death in The work of George Sarantaris

Supervision - Completed

• Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, The Fate of the Greek Minority in Asia Minor
• Dr Jen Harisson, Anthropoligical Readings of Nikos Kazantzakis and Patrick White
• Dr Haris Cypridemos, The Cyprus Question between 1930 and 1960

• Co-Convenor of the 3rd Conference of the Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, Sydney September 1994.
• Co-Convenor of the 4th Conference of the Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, September 1996.
• Member of the Organizing Committee for the Reception of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomeos in Australia, Sydney, October 1996.
• Convenor of Conference on Nikos Kazantzakis: 40 years after his death, September 1997, Sydney, International Conference in Sydney, with the participation of the Kazantzakis International Society, located in Geneva.
• Member of the Organising Committee of the International Conference of the Institute of Languages and Cultures (September 1999) University of Sydney.
• Convenor of the 5th International Conference of the Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, November 2000, Sydney University.
• Convenor of Workshop for Language and Cultures (a collaboration of various departments within Arts Faculty) 2001.
• Convenor of Workshop for Languages and Cultures 2002 (sponsored by the Modern Greek Department).
• Convenor of Modern Greek Studies Conference at Sydney University, December 2004.
• Convenor of the conference of the Sydney Society for Literature and Aesthetics on Martin Heidegger and the Aesthetics of Living, July 2004.
• Convenor of the International Conference on Hannah Arendt, University of Sydney, July 2005.
• Convenor of the Modern Greek Studies Conference on Minorities and Minority Discourses in the Greek World, December 2006.
• Co-Convenor (with Professor Barry Spurr) of the International Conference on the Heritage of T.S. Eliot.

Scholarly Societies

• 1992: Committee member, Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand.
• 1993: Vice-president, Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand..
• 1995: Member of the International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis (Societe des amis de N. Kazantzaki, Geneva)
• 1995: Co-founding member of the Greek-Orthodox Forum, a new cultural association, under the auspices of the Greek-Orthodox Archdiocese, for the promotion of the Hellenic and Byzantine Heritage in Australia.
• 1995: Vice-President, Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand.
• 1998: President of the Association of Modern Greek Studies in Australia and New Zealand.
• 1998: Member of the Council of the Sydney School of Divinity
• 1998: Member of the Academic Board of the Sydney School of Divinity
• 2000: Member of the Centre for Australian Culture and Spirituality
• 2001: Member of the Sydney University based Society for Literature and
  Aesthetics
• 2002: Re-elected President of the Association fo Modern Greek Studies of Australia and New Zealand
• 2003: Honorary member of the Greek-Orthodox Community of Lakemba
• 2005: President of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics
• 2005: Re-elected President of Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand
• 2005: Elected Editor of the official journal of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics
• 2007: Elected member of the Australian Council of the School of Divinities