Issue Details: First known date: 2002... 2002 Alexia : Antigone Kefala's Overdue Fairytale
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The aim of this paper is to examine the way in which Antigone Kefala constructs her story to become an author. She narrates her experience in her book Alexia (Antigone Kefala"s persona) in a fairytale manner. In the book we learn that Alexia spent some of the most important years of her young life in New Zealand, as a migrant. The most important part of this experience is based on her difficulty to come to terms with, and learn, a new language (English). What begins by being a traumatic experience for Alexia, later evolves into a creative force that guides her decision to become an author. In that way the English language becomes the most powerful, the most creative and the most productive tool in her life.

In order to challenge Alexia's process of becoming an author, her experience is compared to that of two famous French authors, Aragon and Sartre, who also decided to become authors in their childhood years. There was an obvious parallel between the French authors' experiences through their first language, which corresponded in an astonishing way to Alexia's. Therefore, no matter whether one wishes to express oneself in one's mother tongue or a foreign language, the process of becoming an author is always to consider a language as an unknown field of strange sounds, musicality and scattered grains of meanings. -- Author's Abstract

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon FULGOR vol. 1 no. 1 March 2002 Z1517437 2002 periodical issue 2002
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Antigone Kefala : A Writer's Journey Vrasidas Karalis (editor), Helen Nickas (editor), Brighton : Owl Publishing , 2013 7090030 2013 anthology criticism biography review

    'Antigone Kefala: a writer’s journey is edited and introduced by Vrasidas Karalis and Helen Nickas. It includes a selection of interviews, reviews and essays on the life and works of Australian poet and prose writer Antigone Kefala, as well as an illuminating autobiographical piece by the poet herself.

    'This diverse biographical and critical material included in a single volume gives a fascinating insight into this writer – a Greek from Romania – who has been living in Sydney since 1960 and has made Australia her home. Prominent literary critics contributing to this volume include Sneja Gunew, Ivor Indyk, Judith Brett, Nikos Papastergiadis, Judith Rodriguez, Dmetri Kakmi, Anna Couani, Paul Kane, Gail Holst-Warhaft and many others from Australia and elsewhere in the world. There is also a section on translation of her works into four European languages, reflecting Kefala’s origins. ' (Publication summary)

    Brighton : Owl Publishing , 2013
    pg. 171-187
Last amended 24 Jul 2014 08:58:49
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/24784/20020503-0000/ehlt.flinders.edu.au/deptlang/fulgor/papers/v1i1_tsianikas.htm Alexia : Antigone Kefala's Overdue Fairytalesmall AustLit logo FULGOR
171-187 Alexia : Antigone Kefala's Overdue Fairytalesmall AustLit logo
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