Chatzis Dimitris

Studies Personal exhibitions (national or international) / Artwork Professional activity Other activities Teaching experience Other information

Year of birth:

1914

Year of death:

1981

Place of birth:

Ioannina

Studies

Being a student, he left his hometown for Athens in order to study Law, but he dropped out due to financial reasons. He studied Greek Literature at the University of Budapest.

Personal exhibitions (national or international) / Artwork

The collection of three independent short stories, which circulated in 1946, [“Fire”, “War”, “Road”], focuses on the weak, who live their drama in Occupation and fight in the Resistance.

[first edition in Bucharest, 1952] “The end of our small city”, a collection of seven stories [O Sioulas o Tampakos, The Grave, Sabethai Kabiklis, Our aunt Angeliki, The Detective, The Professor’s will, Margarita Perdikari], bringing to life the character of a provincial city, Giannena, which is gradually being alienated under the influence of the machines and the growing capital. His next collection “The Undefended”, published in 1966, also refers to simple people.

In 1976, the “Double Book” is published with the experiences of Greek immigrants to Germany, in which the writer includes his personal experience from his stay in the Eastern countries. In 1976, the collection “Spoudes” is published with re-printed novels and other. In 1979, the “Service” (Thiteia), militant texts of the period 1940-1950, while he also wrote essays on the language and politics, published in 1975.

In 1980, he manages the magazine “To Prisma”, a “Selection from World Literature”, that closes down with his passing away in 1981.

Professional activity

He worked as a researcher and he taught Modern Greek Literature at the University of Budapest.

Other activities

He was exiled by the Metaxas Dictatorship. During the German Occupation, he fought for the liberation of his country. The Civil War forced him to migrate to Romania, then to Hungary, then to East Berlin, then back to Hungary (until 1973), and finally to Geneva. After the restoration of Democracy in Greece, he returned as a distinguished fighter and writer, after 25 years of exile.

Teaching experience

In the Summer of 1973, he taught Modern Greek Literature at the Free University of Geneva

Other information

His father, Georgios Chatzis, a famous writer and poet under the pseudonym Pelleren, published the newspaper “Epirus” in Ioannina; until the liberation of the city, it was published in Turkish.

Following the fall of dictatorship, a group of intellectuals press for his return. He returns in November 1974, he goes away again and he finally returns in June 1975.

In the period ’75-’80, the cultural movement flourishes. Chatzis participates in every free cultural movement, giving lectures and lessons all over Greece.

“The end of our small city” appeared in two editions: the first in 1953, by the “Nea Ellada” publishing house in Bucharest, where he was a political fugitive; the second in 1963 in Athens by the “Epitheorisi Technis”, while he was still in Hungary.