Supported by the department of Modern Greek Language and Culture of the University of Amsterdam, ASCA, and the Dutch Society for Modern Greek Studies (NGNS)

Abstract

How does a poet become famous? In this talk, dr. Dimitrouli will address this question by presenting her newly published book, C.P. Cavafy in the English and American Literary Scenes (Oxford UP 2025). The book is a study of the processes set in motion by major Western writers that gave the Greek-Alexandrian poet his global stature. It is also a study of the social construction of genius: of how one must be narrated and promoted as “Great” to become Great. 

Cavafy’s poetry intersected with Forster’s modernist life writing, Durrell’s cosmopolitanism, Auden’s and Spender's post-war explorations, Brodsky’s meditations on exile, and Merrill’s queer aesthetics. Drawing on published work, correspondence, and previously unseen archival material, this book reveals so far unexplored aspects of the texts and personalities involved in Cavafy’s legitimation across languages, genres, and historical contexts. It also presents these literary exchanges as a case study through which to rethink canon formation and transnational cultural validation.

About the speaker

Foteini Dimirouli, Research Fellow in English, University of Oxford

Dr Foteini Dimirouli is a Research Fellow in English at Keble College, University of Oxford, where she was previously an Early Career Development Fellow. She completed her BA (Athens) and MA (Durham) in English Studies, followed by a DPhil in Comparative Literature at Oxford, before holding a postdoctoral fellowship at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton. Her research spans twentieth-century English and American literature, as well as modern Greek studies. She has published on the topics of literary appropriation, authorial networks, and the intersections of literature, digital culture, and globalisation.