Georges Vizeynos, a Distinguished Figure of Greek Literature
The Early Years; The Unique Narrative Style
Georges Vizeynos, 1849 -1896.
Georges Vizeynos, novelist and poet was born by the family name Georges Syrmas, in a destitute family environment of five children, on March the 8th, 1849.
He has left an unparalleled legacy by introducing a
set of ground-breaking techniques in his writing, majorly by means of the
profoundly soul-deciphering style of his novels, which are recognized as viscerally
psychographic. His piercingly soul-searching writing style came into being and
flourished roughly a generation prior to Freud.
An outstanding figure
of the generation of 1880, Vizeynos skilfully adopted a starkly sincere
depiction of the human soul.
It is only just that Vizeynos
is acclaimed to be the master of ethographia, unanimously characterized
as “painter of souls”,
with his seemingly effortless soul-depiction of his characters, transcending simple
ethnography.
Georges Vizeynos was born in Vize, Kirklareli province, on the west coast of the Black Sea. His birthplace and early childhood trauma stigmatized, apart from his own soul and personality, also his writings, which are replete in culminating points of human despair, especially the mother-child bond and the unrequited love of the son who carried the guilt of his own gender. His mother, a dominant figure in most of his novels, turned her life into a traumatizing effort to be redeemed for her daughter’s accidental death during her sleep, having suffocated her newly-born girl.
That was the incident that
inspired one of his autobiographical short stories, namely “My Mother’s Sin”, written in 1883. In
his first short story, Vizeynos combines autobiography with an effective use of
psychological analysis and suspense; “My Mother’s Sin”
is built on the themes of forgiveness, guilt, and atonement, all elements unfolded
in an exquisitely confessional manner; the story probes into a peasant woman’s
(the writer’s mother figure) heart-wrenching attempt to atone for the
accidental death of her only daughter, while leaving her other three male children
feeling stranded (Consulate General in New York, 2018).
Vizeynos derives his
narrative material from his personal recollections, the scenes are widely
retrieved from his homeland, the domestic and communal rituals, his
family memories, such as the death of his father and his little sister,
folklore, traditions, such as the ritual observance of adoption and experiences
recounted and native to his homeland, Vize, such as the matrimonial ceremony.
Vizeynos’ novels are evocative
of his early surrounding imagery of the Ottoman-repressed hometown, the
vestments of his co-patriots who also happen to constitute the familiar
personae of his writings, ascribing to them the nuance of ethographic
literature. His particular depiction and the forceful use of language, devoid
of melodramatic crescendos-rather unadorned and strong in its simplicity of
tragic incidents and acceptances- lead to the conclusion that “the 19th-centrury
writer Vizeynos has been credited with establishing literary realism n Greek
fiction” (Consulate General in New York, 2018).
Most of his writings
are self-narrative, self-investigative in nature.
As concluded by
literary criticism, the study of Vizeynos progresses from biography towards
his writing, hence, leading to the conclusion that both his life and his works
are characterized by otherness (Diakosavva, 2018). Namely, in his narrative
Moscov-Selim, Vizeynos, adopting a far-sighted manner, attains to transcend the
ethnical and religious divides, which were aflare during his day, and
impartially touches the human soul.
According to Diakosavva
(2018) it is astounding how, in sight of the era he lived, proactively he
adopted a mindet via which he overcomes the prejudice and he highlights the virtue
of Moscov-Selim, the Turlish protagonist of his story, and the way he overcomes
the prevalent stereotypes about “same-blood friends”
and “foreign-blood enemies” (Diakosavva, 2018).
His writings are suffused
with otherness: this otherness permeates his personal, turbulent life
and his influences, the narrative technique he established and the
characters of his stories, but majorly, it is present in his intercultural
ethics communicated by his groundbreaking works (Diakosavva, 2018).
Moscov-Selim, written
in 1895, has been the last story of Vizeynos, and it was released on instalments
in Hestia (the outstanding literary paper of the day), during the writer's hospitalization in a mental institution, wherein his demise also
occurred. Moscov-Selim, the Turkish protagonist, from the provincial
aristocracy, is a brisk story, filled with ethnographic and psychobiographic
elements, which narrates the adventures of the persecuted and tantalized Moscov-Selim.
It cannot be neglected
that there is link connecting the authenticity of Vizeynos’ style and his
studies in Germany; there, he came into contact with a literary world that was
abandoning Romanticism and the sterile Classicism and was now turning inwards,
to the soul. This was a defining fact that formulated his prose. It is worth remembering
that, in Germany, Vizeynos was a student of Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), the
founder of experimental psychology and father of modern psychology (Τα Νέα, 2019).
The Benefactor, the Studies Abroad
The absence of the
fatherly figure is also apparent both from his early childhood and his
writings. Vizeynos spent almost the entirety of his lifetime under the wings of
some grandiose benefactors though, who generously granted his studies and his
publications, with the most illustrious of them being his co-patriot and
education benefactor, Yeorges Zarifis.
The Greek benefactor,
Yeorgios Zarifis,
Photo credits:
https: //Constantinopoli.com
Early in his life, at
the age of ten years, Vizeynos was sent by his grandparents to Constantinople
with the aim to learn the craft of sewing and eventually to become a tailor-an
uptake he never fulfilled. Vizeynos entered the School of Philosophy in Athens,
wherein he would study from 1874 to 1875 and continued his studies in Leipzig.
1881 is the year his dissertation paper is completed, titled "The Relation of
Psychology and Pedagogy with the Children’s Play". In this light, one can
conclude that his ease to dig into the intricacies of human psyche might have
been scientifically-backed.
Vizeynos would oftentimes attract the disdain of the elitist academic circles of Athens, a token of which is disclosed by his correspondence, in 1876, addressed to one of his professors, Ilias Tantalides: He wrote:
“Do not reprimand me
for stepping into your clean basement in my muddy tsarouchia; for, as you know,
in a village I was born and I have walked a far, really far and muddy road”.
The Mental Health Collapse and The Fall into Oblivion
Stricken by his mental
disease and the progressive general paralysis, Vizeynos perished desolate at the premature age
of 47 in the Psychiatric Hospital Dromokaition on April 15 of 1896.
To this day , his writing
is exemplary and included in the curriculum of Literature in junior and senior high-schools.
Poems/Novels
1.
My Mother’s Sin, 1883.
2.
Between Piraeus and
Naples, 1883
3.
Who was my Brother’s
Murderer, 1883
4.
The Consequences of the
Old Story
5.
The one and Only
Journey of His Life
6.
Moscov-Selim, 1886
7.
Thracian Tales
And more
Vize,
Eastern Thrace,
Kirklareli
province, Northwestern Turkey
Vize, the
Birthplace of Georges Vizeynos
Photo from:
wiki maps
References
1.
Consulate General in
New York. (2018). My Mother’s Sin by G. Vizeynos. A world first in English
and the United States. Accessed via: https://www.mfa.gr/usa/en/consulate-general-in-new-york/news/my-mothers-sin-by-vizyenos.html.
2. Διακοσάββα, Ε. (2018). Γεώργιος Βιζυηνός, ο
Συγγραφέας της Ετερότητας. Σαν Σήμερα. Lifo. Accessed by: https://www.lifo.gr/san-simera/georgios-bizyinos-o-syggrafeas-tis-eterotitas.
3. Κουζέλη, Λ. (2010). Ο Παιδοψυχολόγος Βιζυηνός. Το Βήμα, Πολιτισμός. Ανακτήθηκε από: https://www.tovima.gr/2010/04/02/culture/o-paidopsyxologos-bizyinos/.
4. Βιζυηνός, Γ. (1985). Ο Μοσκώβ-Σελίμ. Διαθέσιμο
από: https://www.scribd.com/doc/306086612/%CE%92%CE%B9%CE%B6%CF%85%CE%B7%CE%BD%CF%8C%CF%82-%CE%93%CE%B5%CF%8E%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82-%CE%9C%CE%BF%CF%83%CE%BA%CF%8E%CE%B2-%CE%A3%CE%B5%CE%BB%CE%AE%CE%BC.
5. Μπουτάτος, Χ. (2020). Ζαρίφης Γεώργιος, «o Rothschild της Ανατολής». Ανακτήθηκε από: http://constantinoupoli.com/%CE%B6%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%AF%CF%86%CE%B7%CF%82-%CE%B3%CE%B5%CF%8E%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82-%CE%BF-rothschild-%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82-%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%AE.
6. Παξιμαδάκη,
Ε. (2010). Γεώργιος Βιζυηνός, Βιογραφία και Εργογραφία. Ανακτήθηκε από :
https://eirinipax.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/%CE%B3%CE%B5%CF%8E%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82-%CE%B2%CE%B9%CE%B6%CF%85%CE%B7%CE%BD%CF%8C%CF%82-%CE%B2%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9-%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%BF/.
7. Πανταζίδου, Ο. (2017). Όταν ο Θρακιώτης
Λόγιος Γ. Βιζυηνός Συνάντησε τον Πρωτεργάτη της Ελληνικής Ηθογραφία, Δ. Βικέλα.
Ανακτήθηκε από: https://www.alexpolisonline.com/2017/11/blog-post_957.html.
8.
Σιδερά, Π. Γ. Βιζυηνού. Το Αμάρτημα της
Μητρός μου. Ανάλυση. Accessed by: file:///D:/gViziinos-toAmartimaTisMitrosMou.pdf.
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