The contexts of nationalism, violence, exile, and homelessness in Cypriot literature

Abstract

Abstract By comparing Lawrence Durrell's Bitter Lemons, Rodis Roufos's The Age of Bronze, the Turkish folk text HassanBulli and Mehmet Yashin's Wartime and Ghost poems, I have attempted to depict how colonialism facilitates nationalism, violence and the spirit of homelessness and exile within the Greek and Turkish communities of Cyprus. Moreover, my intention is to indicate ways in which the British and Cypriot (Turkish-Greek) points of view come to reflect each other in their respective writings. The Age of Bronze (1960) gives a real and terrifying picture of the situation existing in Cyprus at the height of the revolt. Alexis Balafaras, a former pacifist, and an ardent admirer of the British in spite of his EOKA activities, becomes single-mindedly devoted to the Cypriot cause. The brutalities on both sides horrify him, but he does not flinch from his task of driving the intruders from his native island. In the end, Alexis shares the fate of several of his young pupils and his English friends, among them Sylvia Blackwood, the beautiful wife of an official with whom he has fallen in love. All are caught in a mounting spiral of violence, terror and counter-terror, their lives eventually sacrificed to the struggle for the emancipation of Cyprus. In Bitter Lemons, Lawrence Durrell depicts personal experiences through his own character in the novel. Bitter Lemons begins with the author' s personal impressions ofCyprus, its history and cultural life, and describes the way in which he comes to make himself a home in Cyprus. The book differs from straightforward travel writing; it reflects the politics of its time and the author' s opinions on them, despite his disclaimer, this is not a political book, but simply a somewhat impressionistic study of the moods and atmospheres of Cyprus during the troubled years 1953-6. Durrell is drawn into the conflict as it emerges from the activities of Enosis (the Cypriot riots against the British administration). Meanwhile, he is forced to examine his position as an ex-patriate in a troubled environment. Mehmet Yashin wrote Wartime and Ghost, which are about his relationship with his country, its identity and politics.