12/09/2013

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS

Nikos Kazantzakis.jpg

Kazantzakis was born in Megalokastro, Heraklion,  in 1883 while Crete was still under Ottoman rule.
In 1902, Kazantzakis moved to Athens , where he studied law at Athens University and then, in 1907, emigrated to Paris to study Philosophy . There he was influenced by the teachings of Henri Bergson .After returning to Greece , he  begins to  translate works of philosophy. In 1919 he organised the transfer of the Pontic Greek from Caucasus to Greece. He temporarily resided in Paris, Berlin, Italy, Russia, Cyprus, Egypt, Aegina, Czechoslovakia, Nice, Spain, China and Japan.
While in Berlin, he discovered communism and became an admirer of Lenin. In 1945 he entered the Greek Government as Minister without Portfolio but he resigned the following year. In 1957 he lost the Nobel Prize vs Albert Camus by one vote,  who said that Kazantzakis deserved the honor a hundred times more than himself.
When he died the Orthodox Church denied his burial in a cemetery and his grave is on one of the walls surrounding Heraklion. His epitaph reads:"I expect nothing I fear nothing I am free.." (Greek: Δὲν ἐλπίζω τίποτα, δὲ φοβῦμαι τίποτα, εἶμαι λεύτερος).
His most famous novels include Alexis Zorba, Christ Crucified Again, Freedom and Death, The last Temptation, The Poor of Assisi, Report to Greco, containing both autobiographical and fictional elements and sums up his philosophy as "a Cretan glance", Odyssey.
Early in his youth, Kazantzakis was spiritually restless. He was tortured by metaphysical and existential concerns, he sought relief in knowledge and travel, contacted with a diverse range of people. The influence of Friedrich Nietzsche on his work is evident, especially the concepts of Nietzsche's atheism and the superman .  However, he was also obsessed with spiritual concerns. To achieve union with God, Kazantzakis spent six months in a monastery.
The figure of Jesus was always present in his thoughts, from his youth to his last years. The Christ of The Last Temptation of Christ shares the anguished metaphysical and existential concerns of Kazantzakis, seeking answers to haunting questions and often torn between his sense of duty and mission, on one hand, and their own human needs to enjoy  life, to love and be loved, and have a family. A tragic figure who at the end sacrifices his own human hopes for a greater cause, Kazantzakis's Christ is not as infallible and free from passions deity but is passionate and emotional human being who has been assigned to a mission, with a meaning with which is struggling to understand and that often requires face his conscience and his emotions, and ultimately to sacrifice his own life for its fulfillment. It is subject to doubts, fears and even guilt. At the end he is the Son of Man, a man whose internal struggle represents his humanity.
Many Greek religious conservatives condemn the work of Kazantzakis. His response: "I have given a curse, Holy Fathers, I give you a blessing that your conscience be as clear as mine and that you be as moral and religious as I" before the Greek Orthodox Church excommunicated him in 1955.
  
 1. Kazantzakis was born in............
a. Crete
b. Athens
c. Paris
d. Berlin
2. He was a..............
a. writer
b. poet
c. pianist
d. musician
3. He wrote............
a. Alexis Zorba
b. The Last Temptation of Christ
c. The Poor of Assisi
d. all the above



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