writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

the democratic transition, the return of Constantine Karamanlis to Greece and to her
husband's appointment as President. From that moment, she describes in detail the activities of her
husband and her own, which focused mainly on the problems of the schools in the provinces and
especially on the problems of immigrant children. As the wife of President Tsatsos, her political
activity was very intense, because at that time the entry of Greece into the European Economic
Community was being considered. However, she also made time to continue her literary activity
and between 1975 and 1980, she published several works such as the poems The Cycle of the Clock,
Duty, Time and Ηours of Sinai in which she describes her visit to the Saint Catherine's Monastery.
In 1980, Constantine Karamanlis took over the presidency of Tsatsos and from that moment the
couple Tsatsos devoted their lives to writing and receiving friends, as they always did, at their home.
Constantine Tsatsos died in 1987. Ioanna continued writing until 1993, publishing works of high
artistic quality like the poetry book Road, where we can find poems of religious subjects as well as
very daunting poems, like this little one «so many years we lived by peelings / that we forgot the
taste of the fruit» 9 in relation to the whole Greek history in 20 th century, the First World War, the
Asia Minor catastrophe, the Occupation, the Greek Civil War and the Military Dictatorship. In her last
work Kidatineon 9 she offers an overview of the events that she and her family lived through in that
house until the publication of the book. She died in 2000 when she was 98 years old.
Tsatsos Ioanna's literary production is fundamentally autobiographical, since, following the theory
of the autobiographical pact of Philippe Lejeune 10 , in the most part of her works, the author, the
narrator and the hero coincide in only one person, Ioanna Tsatsos. The author uses literature for two
reasons fundamentally, to express her personal experiences, always conditioned by the historical
circumstances of her country, and to give evidence of some historical events and some heroes’ lives,
as well as of her own life story. Therefore in her work, the author does not restrict herself to the
private sphere, but she transcends to the public sphere and she always explains how historical events
influenced and conditioned her life. The personal sphere is always influenced by the historical
sphere. The author describes historical events as elements affecting her heart, her mind, her mood,
but for the reader who approaches the work constitutes a document of a part of history of Greece. It
should be noted, however, that her point of view on history is always subjective and personal,
because it is important to highlight that Ioanna Tsatsos is not writing history, but she is writing
autobiography.
Ioanna Tsatsos' subjectivity is very cautious. What does this mean? Despite she describes, judges
and criticizes certain episodes of the history of Greece that she does not consider correct, her
criticism is never against specific individuals. The descriptions of most of the historical and political
characters are positive. It is known that the author was Venizelist and her husband and a great part
of her close friends belonged to the Right and she was politically committed to this faction. However,
it is difficult to find a sour criticism to the opposition politicians. This cautious subjectivity is
manifested by indifference. If she has nothing kind to say, she shuts up. In a similar way there are
also certain episodes of the history of Greece that she prefers to ignore. Thus, the Greek Civil War
(1946‐1949) is mentioned only once in her whole literary work.
When we talk about the purpose and Ioanna´s reasons of writing, it is unavoidable to allude to the
prologues of her works. These prologues are very important because in them she expresses the
reasons and feelings that led her to compose them. These prologues are also the key to approach her
literary theory, the reasons because of which she writes autobiography and why and for what does
she use it. One of the most important introductions is the one of The Sword´s Fierce Edge, because
she expresses all her literary theory, according to which she will compose the rest of her work:
I did not intend this journal for publication. I wrote, and from time to time I dropped
my pages into a tin box buried in a corner of our garden, so that sometime our children
might read them.
More than twenty years have passed, and I see that the events which shook the nation
have been forgotten, the psychological climate of that epoch has entirely disappeared.
And yet thousands of Greek women had felt as I felt and acted as I acted. My own life,
as I have lived it, was almost the universal experience of the Greek woman. I believe it is a
583