Kalokyris and Borges: A Study of their Syncretist Aesthetics

Dimitris Kalokyris has been greatly influenced by the syncretist aesthetics of Jorge Luis Borges, whose work he essentially reads through the spectrum of Ancient Greek parody, Byzantine historiography, Surrealism as well as Roidian and Cavafian irony. Kalokyris employs the Borgesian notions of the verbal universe, the poet as maker ("hacedor"), and writing as a series of appropriations, falsifications, and distortions to construct a multifaceted and highly atypical (for Greek literature) syncretist discourse. In effect, Kalokyris's syncretist writing conveys the multitemporal heterogeneity of contemporary culture in the countries of the so-called "periphery" like Greece and Argentina, which geographically and culturally are situated on the crossroads of multiple and heterogeneous traditions and civilizations.