Sunday 10 December 2017

D. K. Toteras, A Twenty-Year-Old Letter on the Meaning of Hellenism and On Being a Corfiot Mandoukiotis


When I was working in Sydney, Australia, I contributed a paper to a Conference on the Culture and Politics of the Diaspora (February 1998). The title of my paper was:

Ambassadors of Hellenism: Bilingual and Anglophone Greek Writers Overseas (Capetanakis, Trypanis, Tsaloumas and Toteras)- with reference to Noukios, Calvos, Cavafy and Seferis.

My main theme was a re-evaluation of four Greek writers in English - Capetanakis, Trypanis, Tsaloumas and Toteras. The conference, The Culture and Politics of the Diaspora, was organised by the Centre for European Studies, University of New South Wales, Australia.

In preparing my paper, I wrote to Demetrius Toteras asking for his thoughts on aspects of the topic. His helpful reply was written on 24th December, 1997, thirty years after I had first met him on the island of  Corfu. 

Here are some extracts from his reply:





I am still interested to read some of the intriguing works he went on to itemise in his letter...

See, for instance, my previous posting: Greek-Town, San Francisco, World War II; The World Shuddered, Demetrius K. Toteras (from Bitter Tears); A Great Greek Writer



All Enquiries, contact: Nine Muses Press, P.O. Box 1138, Occidental, California 95465


See also, my essay on Toteras in the book "Corfu Blues", Ars Interpres, 2006:







Bodega Bay


Delphi, 1968


Photo of Jim by Toteras, 1979




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