A modern poet reads ancient war texts: politics, life and death in George Seferis’ ‘The Last Day’*
It has been argued that ‘The Last Day’, written during the Metaxas dictatorship and while the Second World War was looming on the horizon, constitutes Seferis’ answer to the exhausted model of the ‘national poet’. The aim of this article is to examine in detail the poem’s allusions to ancient war texts, in order to deal with what stood at the heart of this answer, namely the key concept of the ‘historical poet’. Of prime importance will be issues of language and gender raised by the poem, as well as the historical context of its writing and reception.
‘The Painful Memory of Woe’: Greek tragedy and the Greek Civil War in the work of George Seferis
This article deals with some of the poems by George Seferis (1900–71) that deploy the ethos and/or language of Greek (especially Aeschylean) tragedy to mythologize the events of the Greek Civil War (1944–49). This mythologizing process both triggers and conditions the reader’s reaction: s/he is invited to interpret contemporary history through patterns of meaning that derive from the most monumental classical myths and tragic texts. At the same time, by invoking Greek antiquity, the poems zoom out to provide a wide view, thereby detaching current events from their immediate context and re-inscribing them in the much larger framework of human history, thought, and culture. The poems examined include ‘Blind’ (December 1945), ‘Oedipal, ‘48’ (October 1948), and ‘Thrush’ (October 1946). It is shown how contemporary history is invested, in these poems, with the archetypal qualities of tragic myth. By the paradigmatic use of Greek (especially Aeschylean) tragedy Seferis helps define the interpretive framework of his poetry by providing insights into theworldview informing hisstance towards theGreek CivilWar and towards Greek tradition in general.
Science fairs as learning tool for teaching excellence
Science fairs are usually considered to be a pedagogical and cultural activity that involves the students actively. Gifted students need challenges to further develop their skills while maintaining the motivation level. Science fairs may provide the informal environment that will request and allow these students of excellence to challenge themselves by developing a scientific research project. Despite being well known in different countries, in Portugal first steps are being made on the use and implementation of science fairs as effective pedagogical tool. In this work, we will present a 4 years study that was developed on a Portuguese school with the main goal of evaluating the advantages of this informal way of teaching. The study includes an analysis of the evolution of the students’ knowledge that have participated, or visited, the different science fairs. Some advices for the implementation of these projects will be given. The motivation of the students was monitored as well as the knowledge and skills effectively improved by this activity.