Elli Alexiou

Elli (Helle) Alexiou ( Greek Έλλη Αλεξίου ; born May 22, 1894 in Iraklio , Crete , † September 28, 1988 in Athens ) was a Greek writer .

Life

Elli Alexiou, who was born and raised in Crete, studied philology in Heraklion after attending school and then worked for six years as a teacher at a girls' high school. After her marriage in 1920, she moved to Athens, where she also met other writers such as Photios Kontoglou . Subsequently, she was Professor of Education and Literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , where she taught for nineteen years. During the Second World War she was involved in the National Liberation Front ( Εθνικό Απελευθερωτικό Μέτωπο ), an underground movement of the Greek resistance ( Andartis ).

After the end of the Second World War, she studied literature and language at the Sorbonne and also taught at the Greek School in Paris . After her return to Greece, she worked in the Ministry of Education between 1949 and 1962, where she was a consultant for Greek schools in socialist countries. In 1965 she was arrested for her political views and was imprisoned for some time. After her release from prison, she went into exile in Romania in 1965 , but returned in 1966, where she was finally acquitted by a court . After returning to Greece, she devoted herself to writing. Her works are characterized by a poetic realism and deal with socio-political problems.

In the following years she lived with the writer Markos Avgeris until his death in 1973 in Athens. Her nephew is the musician Pavlos Sidiropoulos , while her older sister Galatea Alexiou was married to the well-known writer Nikos Kazantzakis between 1911 and 1926 .

Publications

In addition to novels, she also wrote dramas and children's books . Her best-known publications, which were often realistic and socially critical, include the autobiographical children's book die third mädchenschule (1963) and the two-volume Anthologia hellēnikēs antistasiakēs logotechnias 1941-1944 (Volume 1 1965, Volume 2 1971).

Web links

• Literature by and about Elli Alexiou in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography and work of Ellis Alexiou on the website of the Greek National Book Center (EKEBI) (accessed June 16, 2015)
• Documentation "monogramma: Elli Alexiou" from the year 1984 in the archives of the Greek Television (ERT) (gr. "Αρχείο ντοκιμαντέρ της Δημόσιας Τηλεόρασης - πρώην Ε.Ρ.Τ.") ( Memento of 2 February 2016 Internet Archive ) ( accessed on June 16, 2015)

swell

• Fischer Weltalmanach 1990 , ISBN 3-596-19090-8 , column 1031