Criticising the Critic:

The Greek Modernist Poet G.T. Vafopoulos on Greek Literary Critic Antreas Karantonis

Abstract

Was the chief literary critic of the 1930’s, Antreas Karantonis (1910-1982), spiteful and
unfair in his critical texts about the poetry of G.T. Vafopoulos (1903-1996) and was
Karantonis a critic who adapted to the poetic evolution? The prominent poet of the 1930’s
generation has expressed the opinion that Karantonis has been unfair to his poetry but
research on the critical texts shows that, besides the negative views, Karantonis also
expressed some positive ones regarding Vafopoulos’ poetry. In addition, the constant
critical adaptability that comes as a result of the critic's communication with the shifting
poetic codes, and for which Karantonis’ work is reproached by Vafopoulos, could be
considered as an essential — perhaps even the most essential — virtue of the dynamic
function of critical discourse.