The program welcomed Vrasidas Karalis, Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney and author, who spoke about his latest book “The Blues of Glebe Point Road, in Prose and Verse,” translated by Sofia Troullinou and published by Petites Maisons. He reflected on the lives of the people whose stories are included in the book — migrants who found themselves in Sydney but ultimately could not create the life they had dreamed of in their new land. These are real people whom the author met on Glebe Point Road and whose stories he felt compelled to tell.
Vrasidas Karalis (1960) was born in Krestena. He is Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney and editor of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand). He has translated Byzantine historians and Australian literature into Modern Greek and has published studies such as Nikos Kazantzakis and the Palimpsest of History (1994), For Andreas Angelakis (2003), and Readings of Solomos’ Texts (2004). In English he has published, among others, Realism in Greek Cinema (2017), The Cinematic Language of Theo Angelopoulos (2022), and Theo Angelopoulos: Filmmaker and Philosopher (2023), and he has edited collective volumes on Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, and Cornelius Castoriadis. His recent Greek-language books include History of Greek Cinema (Doma), Sferdouklia on the Head (Doma), and Farewell to Robert (Dyo Deka Editions).