Δοκίμιο & Πολιτισμός

Andreas Laskaratos (1811-1901), a prominent figure in modern Greek letters, was a writer and poet, a social thinker and, in many ways, a controversialist. A life-long enemy of hypocrisy wherever he found it, on many occasions he turned against politicians, while he ceaselessly fought against corruption and religious prejudice and fanaticism. Much of his writing is savagely satirical, but his Reflections set out calmly, clearly and wittily his uncompromising and finely reasoned beliefs. As the essence of his thought they could be read with profit by present-day politicians and teachers of any nationality, and indeed by everybody with an interest in social and moral questions.

A bold reconception of ancient Greek drama by one of the most brilliant and original classical scholars of his generationWhen John Winkler died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript containing a highly original interpretation of the development and meaning of ancient Greek drama. Rehearsals of Manhood makes this groundbreaking work available for the first time, presenting an entirely novel picture of Greek tragedy and a vivid portrait of the cultural poetics of Athenian manhood. Ancient Athens was a military conclave as well as an urban capital, and male citizens were expected to embody the ideal of the Athenian citizen-soldier. Winkler understands Attic drama as a secular manhood ritual, a collaborative aesthetic and civic enterprise focused on the initiation of boys into manhood and the training, testing, and representation of young male warriors. Past efforts to discover the origins and development of Greek tragedy have largely treated drama as a literary genre, isolating it from other Athenian social practices. Winkler returns Greek tragedy to its social context, showing how it was one among many forms of display and performance cultivated by elite males in ancient Greece. The final work of a celebrated classical scholar, Rehearsals of Manhood highlights the civic function of the dramatic festivals at classical Athens as occasions for the examination and representation of boys on the verge of manhood, and offers a fresh explanation of how dramatic performance fit into the social life and gender politics of the Athenian state.

In this booklet Jill Dudley describes the legends of Helios (the sun-god), and explains what the Colossus was and why it was erected and what happened to it. She takes the reader to the ancient sanctuary of Apollo Pythias above Rhodes town, and the temple of Athena at Lyndos. It is as the back cover of the booklet says: all you need to know about the island's myths, legends and its gods.

The rembetika, songs that were sung in the poor quarters of Smryna, Istanbul and the ports of Greece in the late nineteenth century, and became the popular bouzouki music of the 1930s to 1950s, have many parallels with American blues. Like the blues, the rembeika were the music of outsiders, who developed their own slang and their own forms of expression. Road to Rembetika was the first book in English to attempt a general survey of the world of the rembetes who smoked hashish and danced the passionate, introspective zembekiko to release their emotions. An enthusiastic introduction to the subject, it was written by an Australian musician and writer who first came to Greece in 1965 and who has continued to perform and write about Greek music ever since. Gail Holst describes her own initiation into the rembetika, outlines its historical and sociological background, its musical characteristics and instrumentation. The second part of the book is a collection of rembetika songs in Greek with an English translation en face. The text is illustrated with photographs of the period, musical examples and some original manuscripts of the songs. This fourth edition has been retypeset and amended, and has a new introduction and further song lyrics, and the bibliography and discography have been updated.

In the late 3rd century BC, while Rome struggled for her very survival against the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War, Philip V of Macedon allied with Hannibal in pursuit of his dream for a new Macedonian empire. Once Carthage was defeated, however, the Roman army for the first time turned its full attention to the Greek world. The stage was set for the clash of two of the most successful military systems of the ancient world, the Roman legions versus the Macedonian phalanx. Though sorely tested, the legions emerged victorious fromthe epic battles of Cynoscephalae and Pydna. The home of Alexander the Great fell under the power of Rome, along with the rest of Greece, the cradle of Western Civilization, which had a profound effect on Roman culture and society. Philip Matyszak gives a clear narrative of the course of these wars, explaining how the Roman war machine coped with formidable new foes and the challenges of unfamiliar terrain. Specially-commissioned colour plates bring the main troop types vividly to life in meticulously-researched detail.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) is one of the most famous and important philosophers of the twentieth century. In this account of his life and work A.C. Grayling introduces both his technical contributions to logic and philosophy, and his wide-ranging views on education, politics, war, and sexual morality. Russell is credited with being one of the prime movers of Analytic Philosophy, and with having played a part in the revolution in social attitudes witnessedthroughout the twentieth-century world. This introduction gives a clear survey of Russell's achievements across their whole range. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Before Francoise Sagan the literary icon there was Francoise Queiroz, an eighteen-year-old Parisian girl, who wrote a novel and needed a publisher for it. This intimate narrative charts the months in 1954 leading up to the publication of the legendary Bonjour Tristesse. We encounter Francoise, her family and friends close-up, in a post-war world that is changing radically; and Mlle Queiroz, in her new guise of Francoise Sagan, will be at the heart of that social change. Sagan was always focused on her writing, though at times the fame of her books was to be eclipsed by her wild-child reputation. Yet, as Anne Berest herself testifies, Sagan's fearless approach to life lived on her own terms remains an inspiration even now.

Από τις εκδόσεις ΤΟΠΟΣ κυκλοφορεί η 5η μονογραφία του βραβευμένου Έλληνα φωτογράφου Ανδρέα Ζαχαράτου με τίτλο Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου ‘’Ημερολόγιο Πιάνου‘’. Φωτογραφία δοκίμιο πάνω στην εμβληματική προσωπικότητα του συνθέτη/πιανίστα της Τζάζ & του αυτοσχεδιασμού στην Ελλάδα Σάκη Παπαδημητρίου. Ζήτησα από τον Σάκη Παπαδημητρίου να τον συνοδέψω φωτογραφικά στην σκηνή για δύο βράδια στην Αθήνα το 2014 & 2018. Με το άκουσμα των συνθέσεων του Σάκη Παπαδημητρίου ‘’Piano Voices’’ πάνω στην σκηνή δημιουργήθηκε η σύνδεση του Μουσικού Αυτοσχεδιασμού με την Φωτογραφική δημιουργία. Μέσω της μονογραφίας Sakis Papadimitriou- Piano Diary δίνω στο κοινό την δική μου οπτική προσέγγιση ενός δημιουργού που παραμένει νέος , φρέσκος και μελλοντικός.