Guest of the ilb 2003
Dimosthenis Kourtovik was born
in Athens in 1948. He studied biology in his native city and in
Germany, where he also worked as a director, playwright and actor at
the Greek Theatre in Stuttgart. In 1986 he concluded his doctoral
studies at the Univesity of Wroclaw, Poland, with a dissertation on the
origin of Human Sexuality. In the 90’s he taught human sexuality and
behavioural studies at the Univesity of Crete. Kourtovik made a name
for himself as a feature writer, in particular with his literary
criticism. He writes for the most important newspapers in his country,
including the Athenian newspaper “Ta Nea” as well as for a few foreign
papers. In addition, he as translated more than 60 novels from eight
different languages into Greek. With his translation of Peter Høeg’s
bestseller “Miss Smilla’s Sense of Snow”, he helped the genre of the
detective story in Greece to obtain acceptance . Since 1979 he has
published stories, novels, essays and aphorisms, as well the dictionary
“Hellēnes metapolemikoi syngrapheis” (1995; t: Present Greek writers).
It is the first reference book on post-war Greek literature to be made
available in German language (“Griechische Schriftsteller der
Gegenwart”, 2000) and to feature detailed commentary on the life and
work of modern Greek authors. Kourtovik’s work aims to deconstruct myth
as part of cultural tradition and present-day
reality in Greece. His debut „Tris chiliades chiliometra“ (1980; t:
Three-thousand kilometers) is about Greek expatriates in Germany and
tells stories that are a far cry from the usual clichés associated with
migrant workers; “O teleutaois seismos” (1985; t: The last earthquake)
and “To elliniko fthinoporo tis Eva-Anita Bengston” (1987; t: The Greek
autumn of Eva-Anita Bengston), a parody of a detective story, also
testify to this. Kourtovik’s novel „I nostalgia ton drakon” (2000; Ü:
The nostalgia of the dragons) is the story of Professor Drakas,
Director of the Athenian Museum for Early History, who had been
tortured by the Greek junta for sympathizing with the Communists. He
has to travel through Europe with the daughter of his former torturer
to recover a mummy that was stolen from his museum. The search for the
“Ibykus” mummy becomes an odyssey through European history, but also an
excursion through literary genres from the epistolary novel to the
gothic novel to the thriller. Today Dimosthenis Kourtovik lives in
Athens.
© international literature festival berlin
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