Women’s Intellectual Writing in Hellenic Communities abroad

Content outline

This course will focus on the literary activity of women scholars of the 19th century where there are obviously the seeds of a potentially feminist consciousness, as it was formed and developed in the centres of Outside Hellenism. The definition of gender identity, during that period, considers the involvement of women in public and their engagement with literature as incompatible. But with dynamic interventions, and even conflict in the press, with the male-dominated establishment of the time, the literary women, manage to subvert stereotypical male conceptions and prejudices, opposing the female literary creation. Our main interest is the director, educator, scholar and poet, Sappho Leondias, whose contribution to female emancipation, personality, education and reputation, rank in the elite of her era, but also in her sister, Emily Ktenas-Leondias, also an educator and the editor of the magazine Eurydice.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge:

• Our goal is that the students get to know the significant educator and poet Sappho Leondias, a female personality that lived and flourished in Outside Hellenism in the 19thC., as well as the historical and social context within which created the conditions for female scholarship in extremely adverse conditions, producing an important educational, literary and journalistic work.

Skills:

• Be attuned to the way newspaper clippings of the 19thC., on poems, short stories theatre works and serialized novels of Greek Women writers.
• To comprehend the contribution of these women to the development of women's writing and shape individual attitudes, perception and critical thinking towards leading women.
• Be able to refute any stereotyped social representations of gender difference, defending the female gender and identity, recognizing the value of equality, the need for contribution to the arts and literature and to pass on these values to the pupils of tomorrow.