The Hellenic World of Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the literary productions of two interconnected writers, Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell, while paying special attention to their works on the Greek world, and the influence that the Hellenic culture had on both authors through some modern Greek writers. This thesis demonstrates that Miller’s and Durrell’s contact with the Hellenic World and with certain Greek writers of the first half of the twentieth century strongly influenced them and permeated many of their works. Here, the term ‘Hellenic’ is employed as used by Cavafy, meaning the Greek culture as a continuum. That is to say, the cultural heritage of the Greek people as a group sharing the Greek language and a common set of values. This connection is found in three main areas of confluence among Durrell and Miller and the Greek authors that are here studied: the formers’ assimilation of the latter’s productions, the close intellectual and aesthetic affinities among all of them, and the decisive influence of the country that brought them together. Miller and Durrell played indeed an important role in spreading the knowledge of some modern Greek writers at an international level which still had not been sufficiently studied. Their personal and literary relationships with some of the members of the Greek “Generation of the 30s” pervaded their productions and philosophical discourses. Consequently, this dissertation also examines Durrell’s and Miller’s long mutual correspondence and their exchange of letters with some of these Greek intellectuals. This last aspect has involved working in several archives with collections related to Durrell, Miller, Seferis, and Sikelianos, which has resulted in the study of an extensive compilation of unpublished documents.