English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

The aim of this paper is to examine how three objects of the past provide the narrator with the opportunity to travel back in time in three different short stories for young adults written by the distinguished Greek children’s writer Angeliki Varella. Firstly, I will provide some information about the author and then I will concisely examine how memory works in autobiographical short stories for children and young adults. My objective in this paper is to focus on “Fluri konstantinato” (1998), “Kobe kore” (1999) and “The sounds of the gramophone” (2006). I will trace the journey of memory in these three short stories and I will explore how objects function as vehicles for the narrator’s journey into the past. A golden coin (fluri) brought by a refugee from Asia Minor in “Fluri Konstatinato”, a bakiri – a cup for carrying porridgein “Kobe Kore’’, an old gramophone in “The sounds of the gramophone”, all these objects of another epoch, exist simultaneously in the present of the narrator, not only as decorative elements, but also as reminders of her childhood. In these three autobiographical short stories the narrator’s past comes alive through memory, and memory continues to recall experiences as things of the past are still there, having their own ‘voices’. The role of the objects and the confrontation with figures of the past in each story will therefore be analyzed. I also hope to show the aspects of the articulation of time and space through narrative modes in these three stories. Keywords: Angeliki Varella, autobiographical short stories, Children’s literature, childhood, journey of memory, narrative, past. Recalling the past: “The voice of objects’’ in three short stories for young readers written by Angeliki Varella 137 Introduction: Τhe author for children Angeliki Varella Angeliki Varella (1931-) is one of the most important contemporary Greek authors for children. She has been an indefatigable visitor to schools and a committed children’s literature author over the last fifty years. Her first book was published in 1966 and from then on her writing has appeared regularly in children’s literature. She has been celebrated by children, by teachers and by children’s literature critics. Angelliki Varella’s three great loves are: children, books and travelling and as she herself mentions all her life has revolved around them. Her literary work covers a broad range of topics and approaches to various issues. However, a recurrent theme that has emerged in her texts is the love for objects belonging to the past. An “object which existed in the past and exists still in the present’’ acts on her memories, reminding her of the past and becomes for her “the point of origin for narrative’’ (Stewart, 1993:136), creating “a continuous and personal narrative of the past’’( Stewart, 1993:140). Psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott recognizes the complexity and the importance of objects to children and to the development of their imagination and language (Winnicott, 1980: 28-32). Yet, it can be said that not only children, but also people of all ages can be linked with objects of the present or of objects belonging to the past. “How much do we love these old lifeless (are they really lifeless?) objects which keep us company in daily life...” says the narrator in one of Angeliki Varella’s stories in the book Ten sandwiches with stories (Varella, 2002:34 ). In this paper we will examine the identity of the narrator, one of the central concept in the analysis of narrative texts (Bal, 2 1997:19) 1 and the role of objects in three short stories written by Angelliki Varella. These three stories written by her are chosen as, in all of them, objects with their “voices’’ contribute, to a higher or to a lower degree, to the activation of the narrator’s memory. Each of these autobiographical short stories focuses on a different object, however all of them belong to anthologies, to literary works written for young adults that can also be read by both children and adults. In each of them a story is recounted, based on actual events of the author’s 1 In the same work ιt is also added that the narrator and the choices implied give the text its specific character.

epistīmonikī epetīrida tou paidagōgikou tmīmatos nīpiagōgōn tīs scholīs epistīmōn agōgīs. panepistīmio iōanninōn/epistīmonikī epetīrida tou paidagōgikou tmīmatos nīpiagōgōn tīs scholīs epistīmōn agōgīs tou panepistīmiou iōanninōn

Recalling the past : “The voice of objects’’ in three short stories for young readers written by Angeliki Varella