Dimirouli, Foteini. C.P. Cavafy in the English and American Literary Scenes: Authorizing the Other. Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2025. xviii, 246 p.

ISBN 9780198851431 hbk

Introduction: “Cavafy in the World” (pp. 1-33): I. Making a Master (pp. 1-4); II. Authorization and the Poet’s Magic (pp. 4-8); III. The Diasporic Poet in World Literature (pp. 8-11); IV. Agents of Celebrity (pp. 11-14); V. Struggles for Legitimacy (pp. 14-23); VI. The Poet’s Life: A Story in the Making (pp. 23-30); VII. Chapter Summary (pp. 30-33).

1. “A ‘Slight Angle’ on the Staircase of Paradise: E.M. Forster Discovers Cavafy” (pp. 34-89): I. The New Biography and Forster’s 1919 Essay on Cavafy (pp. 36-50); II. The Paradise Staircase and the Republic of Love (pp. 50-66); III. Forster as Literary Mediator and Promoter: The Correspondence (pp. 66-72); IV. William Plomer and a ‘Cavafy Muddle’ (pp. 72-77); V. Looking Back: Forster’s 1951 Essay on Cavafy (pp. 78-89).

2. “The ‘Old Poet’ of The Alexandria Quartet and the European Writer in Exile” (pp. 90-141): I. Durrell in Greece: Paradise Found and Lost (pp. 91-101); II. The Condition of Exile and The Alexandria Quartet (pp. 101-108); III. Cavafy, Exilic Entrapment, and Alexandrian Cosmopolitanism (pp. 108-119); IV. The Homosexual Poet and the City’s Decadence (pp. 120-130); V. The Poet as Fictional Character and the Ecumenical Author (pp. 130-141).

3. “Cavafy’s Crossing of the Atlantic: The Mediation of W.H. Auden, Joseph Brodsky, and Stephen Spender” (pp. 142-176): I. W.H. Auden’s ‘Introduction’ and Cavafy’s Transposition to America (pp. 144-153); II. ‘The Age of Auden’: Joseph Brodsky and Stephen Spender on Cavafy (pp. 153-170); III. Cavafy’s Place in The New York Review of Books’ ‘Republic of Letters’ (pp. 170-176).

4. “James Merrill’s Cavafy and the Poetics of Intimacy” (pp. 177-212): I. Tracing the Greece of Emotional Continuity (pp. 178-184); II. Cavafy and Living Forms (pp. 184-193); III. Translating a Singing Poet (pp. 193-197); IV. Cavafy as Popular Aesthete (pp. 198-206); V. The Questioning of the Canon (pp. 206-212).

Conclusion: “Traditional Prestige, Pop Culture, and Digital Celebrity” (pp. 213-224).

Bibliography (pp. 225-239); Index (pp. 241-246).