1 The historian Polymeris Voglis speaks of a ‘divided memory’ concerning the differences in the way the Left and the Right shaped the collective memories of the 1940s: Voglis, P., ‘Oi μνήμες της δεκαετίας του 1940 ως αντικείμενο ιστορικής ανάλυσης: μεθοδολογικές προτάσεις’, in van Boeschoten, R. et al. (eds), Μνήμες και λήθη του ελληνικού εμφυλίου πολέμου (Athens 2008) 67-8Google Scholar.

2 Vasilakakos, G. describes selected Civil War novels in his monograph О Ελληνικός εμψύλιος πόλεμος στη μεταπολεμική πεζογραφία (1946-1958) (Athens 2000)Google Scholar. Nikolopoulou, M. explores selected Civil War novels and their reception in an informative article, ‘O “τριακονταετής πόλεμος”: H πεζογραφία με θέμα τον εμφύλιο και η διαχείριση της μνήμης στο πεδίο της αφήγησης (1946-1974)’, in Antoniou, G. and Marantzidis, N. (eds), H εποχή της σύγχνσης: H δεκαατία του ‘40 και η ιστοριογραφία (Athens 2008) 419-93Google Scholar. Apostolidou, V., in her monograph Τραύμα και μνήμη. H πεζογραφία των πολιτικών προσφύγων (Athens 2010)Google Scholar, analyses the literary production of political refugees which deals with the resistance and the Civil War. At the University of Hamburg, we are working on a research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) entitled ‘Narrative mediation of collective traumatic experiences, focusing on the Greek Civil War’. We are examining fictional and non-fictional texts on the Greek Civil War using narratological tools in combination with the research field of psychotraumatology. The chairman of the project is Professor Ulrich Moennig. Mr Thomas Kyriakis is analysing the non-fictional works.

3 I refer to following studies: Leys, R., Trauma. A Genealogy (Chicago 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Luckhurst, R., The Trauma Question (London and New York 2008) 1–76 Google Scholar; Adami, V., Trauma Studies and Literature, Martin Amis’s ‘Time’s Arrow’ as Trauma Fiction (Frankfurt am Main 2008) 3–48 Google Scholar and Whitehead, A., Memory (London and New York 2009) 84–123 Google Scholar.

4 Fischer, G. and Riedesser, P., Lehrbuch der Psychotraumatologie, 3rd edn (Munich 2003) 82 Google Scholar.

5 See Luckhurst, Trauma Question, 20-6.

6 On the subject of Freud’s trauma concept, see Leys, Trauma. A Genealogy, 18-40.

7 See Luckhurst, Trauma Question, 10.

8 G. Hartmann, D. LaCapra and L. Langer in particular explored the representation of the Holocaust.

9 Felman, S. and Laub, D., Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History (New York and London 1992) 70-1Google Scholar.

10 See Luckhurst, Trauma Question, 1.

11 See van der Kolk, B. and van der Hart, O., ‘The intrusive past: the flexibility of memory and the engraving of trauma’, in Caruth, C. (ed.), Trauma: Explorations in Memory (Baltimore, MD 1995) 158-82Google Scholar.

12 In her main work Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History (Baltimore 1996) Caruth points out: ‘Traumatic experience /.../ suggests a certain paradox: that the most direct seeing of a violent event may occur as an absolute inability to know it’ (91-2).

13 W. Kansteiner and H. Weilnböck claim that ‘Caruth’s compact model loses a lot of its appeal if one disagrees with its de Manian premise and believes that the limits of representation can be explored and overcome in some contexts and by way of a number of different representational strategies’: ‘Against the Concept of Cultural Trauma’, in Erll, A. and Nünning, A. (eds), Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (Berlin and New York 2008) 230 Google Scholar.

14 I considered the following studies: Fricke, H., Das hört nicht auf. Trauma, Literatur und Empathie (Göttingen 2004)Google Scholar; Whitehead, A., Trauma Fiction (Edinburgh 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kopf, M., Trauma und Literatur. Das Nicht-erzählbare erzählen - Assia Djebar und Yvonne Vera (Frankfurt am Main 2005)Google Scholar; Basseier, M., Kulturelle Erinnerung und Trauma im zeitgenössischen afroamerikanischen Roman: Theoretische Grundlegung, Ausprägungsformen, Entwicklungstendenzen (Trier 2008)Google Scholar and Adami, Trauma Studies and Literature.

15 Luckhurst, Trauma Question, 82.

16 Adami, Trauma Studies and Literature, 73.

17 Luckhurst characterizes Morrison and Sebald as ‘the two most recognized masters of trauma fiction’ (Trauma Question, 90).

18 Antoniou and Marantzidis describe how the political and ideological dominance of the Left after the end of the dictatorship in 1974 contributed to the change of the memory discourse about the resistance and Civil War and how the discourse was politically instrumentalized: G. Antoniou and N. Marantzidis, ‘To επίμονο παρελθόν’, in Antóniou and Marantzidis (eds), H εποχή της σύγχυσης, 35-9. For the memory discourse about the 1940s see also Close, D., ‘The road to reconciliation? The Greek Civil War and the politics of memory in the 1980s’, in Carabott, P. and Sfikas, T. D. (eds), The Greek Civil War. Essays on a Conflict of Exceptionalism and Silences (Aldershot 2004) 257-78Google Scholar and L. Rori, Άπό το “δωσίλογο” Μητσοτάκη στη “νέα Βάρκιζα του ‘89”: η μνήμη της δεκαετίας του ‘40 στον πολιτικό λόγο του ΠΑΣΟΚ’, in van Boeschoten et al. (eds), Μνήμες και λήθη, 293-309. In her anthropological (and sometimes quite subjective) monograph Neni Panourgiá explores the painful history of the leftists in Greece in the 20^th century: Dangerous Citizens. The Greek Left and the Terror of the State (New York 2009).

19 In 1988, Missios published Χαμογέλα ρε ..., τι σου ζητάνε. This text focuses on his experiences during the military dictatorship.

20 See Tsaknias, S., ‘Χρόνης Μίσσιος, .. .Καλά, εσύ σκοτώθηκες νωρίς’, H Λέζη 55 (June 1986) 659-62Google Scholar.

21 See Voglis, P., Becoming a Subject. Political Prisoners during the Greek Civil War (New York and Oxford 2002) 231-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 ‘The task of the listener is to be unobtrusively present, throughout the testimony’: Felman and Laub, Testimony, 71.

23 The extracts are quoted in the monotonie system from Chroniš Missios, ... καλά, гаЬ σκοτώθηκες νωρίς (Athens 1985). The page number will be given in brackets after the quotation.

24 Kotzias finished only four novellas before he died. For an overview of these novellas, see Chatzivasileiou, V., ‘21 Μαΐου 1958’, in Αφιέρωμα στον Αλέξανδρο Κοτζιά (Athens 1994) 233-45Google Scholar.

25 With this term, he refers to the novels of Kotzias, Rodis Roufos (Χρονικό μιας σταυροφορίας, 1954-8), Theophilos Frangopoulos (Τειχομαχία, 1954) and Nikos Kasdaglis (Ta δόνηα τηςμυλόπετρας, 1955). He criticizes these works as apologies of collaboration. See Raftopoulos, D., Οι ιδέες και τα έργα (Athens 1965) 289–305 Google Scholar.

26 The following four articles highlight different aspects of the novella: Skamanga, M., Άλέξανδρου Κοτζιά, Ιαγουάρος, μια μικρογραφία του νεοελληνικού “Τριακονταετούς” πολέμου’, in Koutsoukis, K. S. and Sakkas, I. D. (eds), Πτνχές τον Εμφυλίου Πολέμου 1946-1949 (Athens 2000) 475-80Google Scholar; Apostolidou, V., ‘H μνήμη ως διακύβευμα στον Ιαγουάρο’, Nòa Εστία 1751 (2002) 822-32Google Scholar; Kakavoulia, M., ‘Πέρα από τον εσωτερικό μονόλογο: η πολιτική της γλώσσας στο μυθιστόρημα του Αλέξανδρου Κοτζιά. H περίπτωση του Ιαγουάρου’, Νέα Εστία 1751 (2002) 833-59Google Scholar and M. Nikolopoulou, Ίαγουάρος του Αλέξανδρου Κοτζιά: ένα σχόλιο για τη λειτουργία της μνήμης του εμφυλίου στη δεκαετία του 1980’, in van Boeschoten et al. (eds), Μνήμες και λήθη, 373-85. Apostolidou and Nikolopoulou examine how memory is shaped by ideological and discursive context, Kakavoulia focuses on the narrative technique and Skamanga gives a general overview of the text. A. Argyriou’s introduction to the German translation of the text is also very informative: Argyriou, A., ‘Einführung’, in Alexandros Kotzias, Jaguar. Aus dem Neugriechischen von Hans Eideneier (Cologne 1991) 5–13 Google Scholar.

27 The extracts are quoted in the monotonie system from Kotzias, A., Ιαγουάμος (Athens 1988)Google Scholar. The novel has been translated into English: The Jaguar, trans. H. E. Criton (Athens 1991).

28 Apostolidou and Nikolopoulou both adopt this view. ‘O Κοτζιάς, από την αρχή της νουβέλας του, φροντίζει να θεμελιώσει τις μνημονικές αναδρομές των χαρακτήρων του όχι απλώς σε τυχαίους συνειρμούς ... αλλά στο συμφέ-ρον του παρόντος, υποδεικνύοντας έτσι τόσο τη χειραγώγηση της ατομικής μνήμης από συμφέροντα, συναισθηματι-σμούς, καν επνθυμίες του παρόντος όσο και την κοινωνική χρήση της σολλογικής μνήμης’ (Apostolidou, Ή μνήμη ως δΐακύβευμα στον Ιαγουάρο’, 823). Όι μνήμες δηλαδή του εμφυλίου γίνονται αντικείμενο εκμετάλλευσης για να εξυπηρετήσουν τις ανάγκες του παρόντος’ (Nikolopoulou, Ίαγουάρος του Αλέξανδρου Κοτζιά’, 375).

29 There are different levels of intertextuality in the novella. The motto of the text ‘that I am not like other men’ (Luke 18.11) refers to the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. One could identify Dimitra with the Pharisee and Philio with the Tax Collector. Another level is the intertextual reference to the writer’s own fiction. Philio and several other narrated figures in the novella are also characters in the novel Πολιορκία, such as the communist Fanis, Philio’s father Petridis and her brother Thanos, as well as the paramilitaries Papathanasis and Sarantis.

30 Discussing intertextuality as a literary device of Morrison’s fiction, Whitehead remarks that ‘intertextuality can suggest the surfacing to consciousness of forgotten or repressed memories. /.../ Through intertextual reference to her own fiction, Morrison /.../ signals the haunting power of a traumatic past which can be readily identified by the attentive reader but remains beyond the reach or grasp of the characters themselves’: Whitehead, Trauma Fiction, 85.

31 Freud, S. and Breuer, J., Studies on Hysteria, 1893-1895, ed. Richards, A., trans. J., and Strachey, A. (London and New York 1991) 57 Google Scholar.

32 However, the novel was not well received by influential critics such as Spyros Tsaknias and Dimosthenis Kourtovik: Tsaknias, S., ‘Παύλος Μάτεσις, Hμητέρα τον σκύλου ’, in Πρόσωπα και μάσκες. Κριτικά κείμενα 1988–1999 (Athens 2000) 137-41Google Scholar; Kourtovik, D., Ημεδσπή εξορία. Κείμενα για την ελληνική λογοτεχνία 1986-1991 (Athens 1991) 120-9Google Scholar. The review by Tsatsoulis focuses on various narratological aspects of the novel, whilst Chrysomalli-Henrich highlights ironical and satirical aspects of the text: Chrysomalli-Henrich, K., ‘Σάτιρα кш ειρωνεία: στοιχεία ανατροπής της τραγικότητας στο H μητέρα του σκύλον του Παύλου Μάτεσι’, in Aldama, J. Alonso and Sáenz, O. Omatos (eds), Cultura neogriega. Tradición y modernidad. Actas del III Congreso de Neohelenistas de Iberoamérica (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2 de junio-5 de junio de 2005) 329-40Google Scholar; Tsatsoulis, D., Έκδοχές της αλήθειας. Για τις αφηγηματικές τεχνικές και τις γλωσσικές ανατροπές στη Μητέρα του σκύλου του Παύλου Μάτεσι’, in H περιπέτεια της αφήγησης. Αοκίμια αφηγηματολογίας για την ελληνική και ξένη πεζσγραφία (Athens 1997) 183–202 Google Scholar.

33 The extracts are quoted in the monotonie system from Matesis, Pavlos, Я μητέμα του σκύλου (Athens 2001)Google Scholar. The novel has been translated into English: The Daughter, trans. Fred Reed, A. (London 2002)Google Scholar.

34 Tsatsoulís interprets the heterodiegetically narrated part as dialectics between lies and truth. ‘H τριτοπρό-σωπη αφήγηση, μεταξύ αλήθειας και μερικής απόκρυψής της, θ’ αποκαλύψει την ψυχική ασθένεια της Ραραούς, υποβάλλοντας την εξήγηση για την παραποίηση της αλήθειας που αυτή διαπράττει. Πράγμα που θα επιβεβαιωθεί στο τελευταίο κεφάλαιο, από την εμβόλιμη επιστολή του ψυχίατρου’: Tsatsoulis, Έκδοχές της αλήθειας’, 196-201 (200).

35 For the reception of the novel see Skourpas, C. I., ‘H Ορθοκωστά του Θανάση Βαλτινού και η κριτική’, Νέα Ernia 1802 (2007) 198–211 Google Scholar. The complex text is highly interesting for literary analysis. See the following reviews: Politi, T., ‘To βουβό πρόσωπο της ιστορίας’, in Συνομιλώντας με та κείμενα (Athens 1997) 229-45Google Scholar; Calotychos, V., ‘Writing wrongs, (re)righting (hi)story?: “Orthotita” and “ortho-graphia” in Thanassis Valtinos’s Orthokosta’ Gramma 8 (2000) 151-65Google Scholar; Charalambidou, N., ‘O λόγος της ιστορίας και о λόγος της λογοτεχνίας: Δομές αναπαρά-στασης της ιστορίας στην Ομθοκωστά του Θανάση Βαλτινού και στην πεζογραφία του εμφυλίου’, in Ιστορική πραγμα-τικότητα και νεοελληνική πεζογραφία (1945–1995), Επιστημονικό συμπόσιο (7–8 Απριλίου 1995) (Athens 1997) 249–77Google Scholar; Papailias, P., Genres of Recollection. Archival Poetics and Modern Greece (New York 2005) 139-78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 For this text see Paivanas, D., ‘A post-modern lesson in history: the incomplete rhetoric of Thanasis Valti-nos’ The Descent of the Nine ’, BMGS 29/2 (2005) 203-34Google Scholar and Charalambidou, N., ‘Time and place in a novel of the Greek Civil War: Thanasis Valtinos’ The Descent of the Nine ’, Journal of Mediterranean Studies 2/2 (1992) 226-39Google Scholar.

37 See Papailias, Genres of Recollection, 142.

38 ‘Although the testimonies in Orthokosta are told to the “oral historian”, the speakers’ fellow-villager, they can be seen at a deeper dialogical level as responses to the accusing logos of the Left and the charge of Nazi collaboration or nonparticipation in EAM’: Papailias, Genres of Recollection, 162.

39 The extracts are quoted from Valtinos, Thanasis, Ορθοκωστά (Athens 2007)Google Scholar.