Divided Times: How Literature Teaches Us to Understand 'the other' by Amanda Michalopoulou.'

Amanda Michalopoulou.

• Amanda Michalopoulou was born in Athens, Greece in  1966. 

• Now she lives in Athens where she teaches creative writing at various institutions.
• She studied French Literature in Athens and Journalism in Paris.
• Her work has been translated into twenty languages.

Major works.

Amanda Michalopoulou is the author of eight novels and three short story collections. her stories have appeared in Harvard Review, PEN Magazine, World Literature Today, The Guardian, etc.

Novels.

     1.God's Wife.  published in 2019.  translated by      Patricia Felisa Barbeito

     2. I Killed My Best Friend.  published in 2014.  translated by Karen Emmerich.

     3.  How to Hide. published in 2010.

Short story Collections.

      1. I'd Like.  published in 2008.  translated by Karen Emmerich

     2. Bright day.  published in 2012

Awards

1. Revmata Prize in 1994.

2. Diavazo Novel Prize in 1996.

3.  International Literature Prize by NEA in the US

Introduction.

Literature portrays human life through the words, actions, and reactions of the characters and conveys certain messages for educating and correcting society. Literature helps us to realise our mistakes and correct the same.  A close reading of a literary text helps us to understand the pathetic situation of the characters. Usually, literature is seen as the imagination of the dominant classes, races, and castes. According to Amanda Michalopoulou, certain classics challenge the perceptions of the dominant classes and help us to cultivate sympathy towards 'The Other' like refugees. 'The other' can be any individuals or groups who labeled as not fit to the norms and values of a social group.'The Other' is the one who is exploited, desolated, or oppressed by the dominant ideology.  Recently there are many novels and films which expose the subject of the refugee crisis and migration, like  Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Pick-up by  Nadine Gordimer.

Amanda Michalopoulou says that, apart from the traditional reading, it is also possible to reread the Classics like Hamlet by Shakespeare, Odyssey by Homer, Don Quixote by Cervantes, and The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. A close reading of these characters helps us to understand the way how they were treated by their society as 'The Other'. They teach us to empathize with such suffering people.  Just like Odysseus, there are many refugees are arriving at the shore of Europe every day. Here what she says that This is not a new thing for us. We have to empathize with refugees. They are the ones who struggle for their existence. We have to change our attitude towards refugees. Never accept the views propagated by Media. That is not the reality. "It tells us: Other is not what it seems"

Summary and Analysis.

Divided Times is an extract taken from the opening speech of Amanda Michalopoulou at the second international literature festival in Odessa. This extract started like telling a story.  There were four Europeans, a  Greek, an English man, a German, and Spaniard. They decided they would each write a story to explain the different human conditions.  The Greek said he would write a story about a man who had returned from the war. When he returned home no one did recognize  him. English man has decided to write a story of a young Prince who cannot decide if life is worth it. Spaniard decided to write a story about a farmer who believes he is a knight and undertakes several foolish adventures.  German has decided to write about a young man who falls passionately in love with someone else's wife and dies of love in the end.

If we look at these Europeans, we can understand the way how Homer created the Epic, Shakespeare the drama, and Cervantes the novel Wanderlust and Goethe cultivated the soil of romanticism. These classical writers produced marginalised antiheroes in their works.  And marginalised anti-heroes are popular even in the modern and post-modern narratives.  They are very popular among the readers with different interpretations. Here Amanda Michalopoulou asks some questions regarding the characters. Who are they really? What do People around them think of them? What do they think of themselves?   There are many interpretations regarding these characters. Michalopoulou says that apart from the traditional interpretation, these characters can be read from the perspective of 'the other'.  'The other' can be any individuals or groups who labelled as not fit to the norms and values of a social group.

In the next paragraph, Amanda Michalopoulou takes Odysseus as an example.
The experience of Odysseus on the island of the Phaeacians can be seen in similarity with the contemporary refugee crisis. Therefore the character of Odysseus can be read from the perspective of the modern refugee crisis. Most of the countries are not willing to accept and give shelter to them. Usually, in the eyes of people, Refugees are considered to be strange and terrifying figures. Same way here in the eyes of  Nausicaa and her companions he was a stranger and they were terrified when they met the first time. Moreover, they consider Odysseus as a "Hill kept lion". And he was struggling to stop his hunger, nobody was willing to give him food and shelter. Odysseus can only assume his position as a hero once he has washed and put on clean clothes.

If we consider Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet was also a mad man in the eyes of Claudius and Gertrude. Don Quixote was a middle-aged gentleman who read many books about chivalrous Knights, determined to undertake a great adventure to win his ladylove, Dulcinea.  He was also a mad man to villagers. When they asked him why he is wandering around in armour during peacetime, he introduced himself as a wandering knight, an ambassador of God on earth. Here Don Quixote also had an image of 'the other' in the society.

Michalopoulou says that literature helps us to understand 'the other', with all their peculiar qualities. In many works, there will be a hero who struggles for his existence. Sometimes he considered it as a sign of courage.  He is the one who fights for his freedom, his idea, his aesthetic, as does in James Joyce's Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist As a young man.

Literature forms another form of education. It helps us to understand the mind and heart of people.  Literature teaches us how to empathise with 'the other'. So when we read works of the European tradition, we begin to understand the situation of 'the other'. Odysseus is not a merely filthy,  shipwrecked man but he was also a victim of othering in the island of the Phaeacians. The same way number of Odysseus refugees are arriving on the shore of Europe every day. This is not a new thing for us. We have to empathise with them. They are the one who struggles for their existence. We have to change our attitude towards refugees. Never accept the view propagated by Media. That is not the reality. "It tells us: Other is not what it seems".