Z213: Exit

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POENA DAMNI TRILOGY - GERMAN EDITION

Z213: Exit is the first book in the Poena Damni trilogy by the Greek writer Dimitris Lyacos . Although it was first in narrative order, the book was published third of the three. The work develops as a series of fragmented diary entries that record the lonely experiences of an unnamed, Ulysses-like persona on a train journey that gradually turns into an inner exploration of the boundaries between self and reality. The journey also resembles the experience of a religious search with a multitude of biblical references, mostly from the Old Testament, which are embedded in the often embedded text and dispense with punctuation. Most critics place Z213: Exit in a postmodern context and examine correlations with writers such as Samuel Beckett and Cormac McCarthy , while others emphasize its modernist affinities and the work's firm foundation on classical and religious texts.

Z213: Exit blurs genre boundaries and is a novella, poem and diary at the same time. In contrast to "factual accounts " like "If This Is a Man" by Primo Levi , the work adopts a mode of oneiric (dream-like) realism in which horror is forced beneath the surface of consciousness, only to take on new and increasingly nightmarish forms to reappear. Allusions to tragedies in recent human history are evident, although numerous biblical and mythical motifs suggest a much broader project. The book can be read as the first volume of a postmodern epic. It is considered one of the most important anti- utopian works of the 21st century.

Synopsis

Front cover of the English edition

The work tells what reads like a personal diary, in verse form as well as in postmodern poetic prose, the wanderings of a man who is fleeing from a guarded building in a nightmarish version of a post-Armageddonian ambience. In the first few sections of the book, the narrator / protagonist escapes from a type of detention facility made up of departments and staff from which people are inexplicably taken away and thrown into pits. The refugee leaves the “camp” in order to get to the nearby train station and begins a journey that he records in a “found” Bible-like notebook, which he turns into his diary. As the journey progresses, a growing sense of paranoia develops and the idea of ​​being followed becomes an increasingly central issue. However, there are no pursuers who can be identified as the journey progresses, and the alleged hunt remains a mystery until the end. The surroundings seem to suggest a decadent, futuristic state of a totalitarian nature. The journey is depicted in an indefinite way, although oblique references create a sense of time-space vacuum. The narrator appears to be moving forward while simultaneously becoming entangled in his own nightmarish fantasies. Z213: Exit ends with the description of a victim in which the protagonist and a "hungry gang" roast a lamb on a spit, cut and skin its still bleating body and remove its entrails as if they were observing a sacred rite . The mood is enhanced by the overall desert landscape, which (it is never explicit) may be the result of a war that left the landscape in ruins. The general impression is reminiscent of a spiritual search or an eschatological experience.

title

The title of the book seems to represent a case of overdetermination, and various suggestions have been made by scholars and referees pointing to different directions in the text. There is a general impression that given the contents of the book as a fictional refugee diary, Z213 could provide the unique number, department or division of an inmate in an alleged prison. A number of other interpretations have been suggested as follows:

1) The first departure of the protagonist from the train station is 9:13 p.m. The same passage refers to the two archetypal wanderers Ulysses and Moses.

2) In Matthew 2:13, an angel tells Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt to avoid the Herod massacre.

3) 1313-13 repeated, twice repeated the year of the red (reed) lake crossing and the year of Revelation on Sinai.

4) In the year 213 BC There are significant book burnings in China after Emperor Qin Shi Huang made the decision.

5) AD 213 is the year of implementation by Constitutio Antoniniana in which all volunteers except the Dediticii received the right to Roman citizenship. The book refers specifically to them and to a state of statelessness.

6) The book refers diagonally to an unnamed substance that seems to provoke hallucinations: according to the character of the book, the letter Z is the second letter of the name of the substance, followed by "some numbers".

7) The letter Z is related to the root of the word Azazel (לַעֲזָאזֵל la-aza'zeyl) and denotes the scapegoat that was poured in Leviticus 16 in the wilderness. The book explicitly refers to the Leviticus extract.

subjects

Z213: Exit recontextualizes elements from the larger Greek canon - including the escaped hero and the pious wanderer. It revolves around a variety of interrelated issues, with search and the scapegoat being prevalent in both its social and religious dimensions. Through the escape and gradual alienation of the book's main character, who fled a structure depicted as a kind of prison, it is revealed that a person is the alleged victim of an order of persecution. This is made even more difficult by the underlying trauma of a real - or imagined - social breakdown, the details of which unfold as the narrator progresses. Exposure outside the confines of a familiar world also adversely affects attitudes of self and reality, which the narrator / writer must restore. Exile brings with it the struggle of reconstructing a known universe by forming new and assimilating experiences that are sometimes incomprehensible, nightmarish or hallucinatory. Reinventing a "personal reality", referring to others and looking for a metaphysically solid foundation is a major concern that leads to existential fears and a growing sense of paranoia. At the same time, there are aspirations to reach an absent God who seems to be constantly straying from the reach of the protagonist, and awakens experiences described by mystics of negative theology , Dante's inferno, and the Book of Job.

style

Z213: Exit uses the artifact of the palimpsest to convey the various layers of its mythical, historical and fictional content. Starting in medias res , it builds up a kind of indissoluble tradition around its narrator / protagonist, in which poetry and prose alternate in order to portray his inner thoughts and experiences. Poetic tropes interchangeably combine with an almost telegraphic style, omitting articles and links while using the rhetoric of the diary form; mostly colloquial, with violations and distortions of grammar. Floating sentences and gaps occasionally form a broken, unstructured syntax that appears tight, but leaves enough gaps for subconscious fears to be expressed. At the same time, language is used rhythmically to create a musicality in the midst of desperation.

It was found that Z213: Exit, instead of its formal features, has the deep structure of tragedy and has therefore been called a post-tragic work. Religious and visionary images as well as a biblical style of language dominate with the Old Testament (mostly Torah ) and various ancient Greek texts, which are recurring points of reference. Sometimes external sources are added and seamlessly integrated into the text to become part of the protagonist's narrative. On the linguistic level, the text itself creates a “liminal” and fragmented landscape, which represents the break in the temporal and spatial relationships in the universe that was unraveled in the course of the journey. Ultimately, the text seems to have its own independent status to ponder, arrange and rearrange itself.

Publication history and reception

The original Greek version (Greek title: Z213: ΕΞΟΔΟΣ) was first published in 2009. The English translation of Shorsha Sullivan was published by Shoestring Press in 2010, followed by a second revised edition in 2016. In its two editions, the book is the most widely reviewed work of contemporary Greek literature in translation. Critic Michael O'Sullivan hailed the book as "a wonderfully obscure but enticing description of what might be described as a philosophy of exits and entrances" and as "convenient among works like Kafka's Before the Law" and Beckett's short poem “My way is in the sand.” The literary critic and Robinson Jeffers scholar Robert Zaller regarded the book as “one of the most important and challenging literary works that have emerged in Greece in the past generation.” The work is considered a characteristic exponent the fragmentation technique in contemporary literature, while at the same time being perceived as a legacy of epic poetry and shaping the ancient narrative tradition into a postmodern idiom. Z213: Exit belongs to the canon of postmodern texts published in the new millennium and is Lyacos' Poena Damni trilogy arguably the most significant Greek work in the postmodern liter nature and theater history. The trilogy as a whole is classified as an example of the postmodern sublime as well as one of the most important anti-utopian works of the 21st century. The book was commercially one of the best-selling titles in contemporary Greek poetry in English translation. A new, revised version of Z213: Exit. ( ISBN 978-1-910323-62-5 ) was published in October 2016, while the full trilogy in a box set, English edition, was published in November 2018.

The Poena Damni trilogy was first published in German in the form of the first version of the second book [Nyctivoe] by CTL-Presse, Hamburg, in a two-volume Greek-German edition on the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2001. The first edition of the third book "Der first death "was first published in 2008 in German ( ISBN 978-3-940249-27-2 ), followed by a second edition in 2014 ( ISBN 978-3-940249-85-2 ). The final and complete trilogy edition was published in April 2020 by Klak Verlag ( ISBN 978-3-948156-33-6 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. Greece, The arts
  2. ↑ Poena damni: Z213: Exit . Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b Nicholas Alexander Hayes. Review of Z213: Exit. Your Impossible Voice, February 2017. http://www.yourimpossiblevoice.com/review-z213-exit-poena-damni-dimitris-lyacos/
  4. ↑ a b Poena Damni Trilogy. Review by Justin Goodman. Cleaver Magazine 2015. http://www.cleavermagazine.com/poena-damni-trilogy-by-dimitris-lyacos-reviewed-by-justin-goodman/
  5. ↑ Shorsha Sullivan, The Art of Translating. The Writing Disorder Anthology, vol. 2, page 82.https: //books.google.gr/books?id=dGOAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=dimitris+lyacos+old+testament&source=bl&ots=zd9eq6Swc6&sig=xW-4jisLtrDtwA0-mkloa3WQxDjved=jW4jisLtrDtwA0-mkloa3WQxDj=QjWA0-mKlo3WQxDj = onepage & q = dimitris% 20lyacos% 20old% 20testament & f = false
  6. ↑ a b c Michael O'Sullivan. A philosophy of exits and entrances. Cha Magazine, October 2011, Hong Kong. http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/778/280/
  7. ↑ Poena Damni Trilogy. Review by Justin Goodman. Cleaver Magazine 2015. http://www.cleavermagazine.com/poena-damni-trilogy-by-dimitris-lyacos-reviewed-by-justin-goodman
  8. ↑ Philip Elliott. A review of Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos. Compulsive Reader, August 2017. http://www.compulsivereader.com/2017/08/16/a-review-of-z213-exit-poena-damni-by-dimitris-lyacos/
  9. ^ From the ruins of Europe. Lyacos's debt riddled Greece. Review by Joseph Labernik. Tikes Magazine, 2015. http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/from-the-ruins-of-europe-lyacoss-debt-riddled-greece
  10. ^ With the people from the bridge. Review by Toti O'Brien. His and Warden Magazine. http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/seinundhaben/with_the_people_from_the_bridge.html
  11. ↑ a b A review of Z213: Exit. Mark King. The Literary Nest, Vol. 3, Issue 1, April 2017.
  12. ↑ a b The Missing Slate. Review of Z213: Exit by Jacob Silkstone. March 2017. http://themissingslate.com/2017/03/07/z213-exit/
  13. ↑ a b Toby Widdicombe, Andrea Kross. Historical Dictionary of Utopianism, p. xxxi. 2017, Rowman and Littlefield. https://books.google.gr/books?id=LQolDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR31&lpg=PR31&dq=%22Z213:+Exit%22&source=bl&ots=ICwJlpQG4e&sig=ujnqcbehQ_jshx8tQHzcnrhF6HY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-l-vG66jUAhUEbRQKHVFOCAc4MhDoAQgiMAE#v=onepage&q&f=false
  14. ↑ a b c Manos Georginis, Verse Wisconsin, Issue 106, 2011
  15. ^ He Adirondack Review. Allison Elliott. A review of Poena Damni Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos. Fall 2010 New York USA.
  16. ↑ a b Marie Schutt. Dimitris Lyacos's Z213: Exit, a world gone mad. Liminoid Magazine, February 2017. online
  17. ↑ Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos (Second Edition). Review by Max Goodwin Brown. Writing.ie. October 2017, Ireland, online , Prick of the Spindle Journal, April 2017. Alabama, USA (on hiatus).
  18. ↑ decomp Magazine. Spencer Dew, Dimitris Lyacos' Z213: Exit. July 2011.
  19. ↑ Cha An Asian Literary Journal, Issue 13, February 2011. Michael O 'Sullivan. A philosophy of exits and entrances: Dimitris Lyacos' Poena Damni, Z213 Exit
  20. ↑ a b c d The Adirondack Review. Allison Elliott. A review of Poena Damni Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos. Fall 2010 New York USA.
  21. ^ Timeline of Jewish History
  22. ↑ Dimitris Lyacos. Z213: Exit, Shoestring Press 2010, p. 87
  23. ↑ Dimitris Lyacos. Z213: Exit, Shoestring Press 2010, p. 39
  24. ↑ Review of Z213: Exit. Will Carter, Ezra Journal of Translation, vol. 12, spring 2017
  25. ↑ Dimitris Lyacos interviewed by Juliana Woodhead. The Writing Disorder, online
  26. ↑ a b c d Genna Rivieccio, Z213: Exit. The Opiate Magazine, February 2017, online
  27. ↑ Review of Z213: Exit. Will Carter, Ezra Journal of Translation, vol. 12, spring 2017
  28. ↑ Z213: EXIT by Dimitris Lyacos (Second Edition). Review by CL Bledsoe. Free State Review, October 2017, Maryland USA, online ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / freestater.wordpress.com
  29. ^ The Writing Disorder. Shorsha Sullivan, The art of translating. A note on translating Dimitris Lyacos's trilogy. 2012
  30. ↑ g emil reutter, Z213: Exit, North of Oxford. https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/z213-exit-poena-damni/
  31. ↑ Philip Elliott. A review of Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos. Compulsive Reader, August 2017. http://www.compulsivereader.com/2017/08/16/a-review-of-z213-exit-poena-damni-by-dimitris-lyacos/
  32. ↑ Ilias Bistolas, Poena damni - Z213: Exit. Southern Pacific Review, January 2017. http://southernpacificreview.com/2017/01/26/z213-exit/
  33. ↑ a b A Philosophy of Exits and Entrances: Dimitris Lyacos's Poena Damni, Z213: Exit by Michael O'Sullivan. http://www.asiancha.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=778&Itemid=280
  34. ↑ Z213: EXIT by Dimitris Lyacos (Second Edition). Review by CL Bledsoe. Free State Review, October 2017, Maryland USA. https://freestater.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/z213-exit-by-dimitris-lyacos-translated-by-shorsha-sullivan/
  35. ^ Fran Mason, Historical Dictionary of postmodern Literature and Theater, Dimitris Lyacos pp. 276-77. Second Edition, Rowman and Littlefield 2016.
  36. ↑ http://tbilisilitfest.ge/EN/index.php?do=full&id=5432
  37. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from August 19, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lyacos.net
  38. ↑ http://www.eng.cuhk.edu.hk/?page_id=784
  39. ^ Eucharist: Dimitris Lyacos's “With the People from the Bridge”. Robert Zaller http://criticalflame.org/eucharist-dimitris-lyacoss-with-the-people-of-the-bridge/
  40. ^ Paul B. Roth, The Bitter Oleander, Volume 22, No 1, Spring 2016, New York. http://www.bitteroleander.com/
  41. ↑ Vince Carducci , Bob Dylan: Nobel Laureate? http://www.publicseminar.org/2016/10/bob-dylan-nobel-laureate/#.WAXcY2UsxvY
  42. ^ Fran Mason, Historical Dictionary of postmodern Literature and Theater, Chronology pp. xxx-xxxi. Second Edition, Rowman and Littlefield 2016.
  43. ^ Philip Shaw, The Sublime. Chapter: The Sublime is Now, p. 176. Routledge 2017. https://books.google.gr/books?id=XA-9DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT206&lpg=PT206&dq=dimitris+lyacos+postmodern&source=bl&ots=_tMteVbd0Y&sig=18IjAjY8pYa2bDDutlWCO5cZKvs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7teHY68bTAhWCfhoKHaD1BG8Q6AEIWjAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false
  44. ↑ http://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/dimitris-lyacos-z213-exit/
  45. ↑ http://tbilisilitfest.ge/EN/index.php?do=full&id=5427
  46. ↑ http://www.shoestring-press.com/2018/10/poena-damni-the-trilogy/
  47. ↑ https://www.klakverlag.de/produkt/poena-damni-trilogie-lyrik/#tab-author