It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm, as well as with a deep sense of responsibility towards the cultural legacy of the universal work of the great Cretan writer Nikos Kazantzakis, that Dioptra Publications announces the 1st Reading Marathon "Nikos Kazantzakis in the 21st century" for the academic year 2024-2025. The Reading Marathon is associated with two student competitions, the eponymous Creative Writing Competition and the Comic Contest "Nikos Kazantzakis and the 9th Art".
This is a major "literary campaign" aimed at familiarising the young reading public with the work of Nikos Kazantzakis, hoping that children and teenagers will become familiar with it, study it and, above all, love it, with their teachers as helpers in this effort.
The Reading Marathon is under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, the University of Western Macedonia, the Department of Philosophy and Pedagogy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Faculty of Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
In February 2022, when Diptra Publications took over the copyright of Nikos Kazantzakis in Greece, they felt the need to offer readers of all ages, and especially young people, the opportunity to get to know and reacquaint themselves with his work, based on its ability to provoke the reflection that our era needs. As a nation's literature is a deep cultural imprint, the 'heart' of its own culture, Kazantzakis' work is a cultural asset that we must pass on to future generations, while preserving its timeless, sharp and always topical character.
Why the work of Nikos Kazantzakis?
Nikos Kazantzakis is one of the leading Greek writers of the 20th century and the most widely translated abroad. His oeuvre includes novels, plays, poems and philosophical essays and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature nine times. The breadth and dynamism of his writing allow him to be described as a classic writer of world renown, placing him alongside the great figures of world literature. His works, multi-layered and multi-dimensional, highlight diverse contrasts and compositions while thoroughly examining the human condition, maintaining an unprecedented freshness and vigour. Kazantzakis writes with existential angst, pondering all the great questions that pertain not only to his time but to all times, and his characters experience this quest as a constant need for meaning.
What will students gain from participating in the Competitions?
The purpose of this great "literary campaign" is to introduce the young reading public to the work of Nikos Kazantzakis, so that children and teenagers can become familiar with it and study it with the help of their school teachers.
The Reading Marathon "Nikos Kazantzakis in the 21st Century", the Creative Writing Competition of the same name and the Comic Strip Competition "Nikos Kazantzakis and the 9th Art":
- They are an excellent opportunity for children and teenagers to get to know and love the work of the great writer!
- They promote an individual, collaborative, experiential, exploratory approach to knowledge and encourage the development of students' literary skills and expression. Furthermore, they are interdisciplinary in nature, combining the literary and artistic elements, and can be linked to a multitude of scientific and cognitive fields such as history, philosophy, rhetoric, etc.
- They are integrated in the context of the philanthropic reading activities and programmes, as well as the artistic - and intercultural - activities of the curriculum of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and aim to highlight the Kazantzakian literary universe to the students of the 21st century, while contributing to the enrichment of the teaching objectives and the expected learning outcomes, as the works of the competitions are consistent with the curriculum depending on each school level.
Students in each class are invited to read specific works by Nikos Kazantzakis, depending on the grade they attend, and then to be inspired by them and create their own original works.
The Reading Marathon is open to all students in primary, secondary and high schools in Greece. For primary school students in particular, the marathon is addressed to students of 4th, 5th and 6th grade. For primary school, the competitions accept both collective entries from school sections and individual entries from pupils. For secondary education (secondary school, high school) only individual entries from pupils are accepted. For secondary education, the option of collective participation of school sections is not available.
For more information, please visit the relevant website of Dioptra Publications
