The Staggering of Andreas Kalvos

Chapter 2 tells the story of Andreas Kalvos (1792–1869), one of Greece’s more emblematic poets. It narrates Kalvos’s first steps as Ugo Foscolo’s student and Italian Neoclassical tragic writer, as well as his subsequent transformation from an Italian into a Greek poet within the environment of London philhellenism. It focuses on Kalvos’s gradual discovery of modern Greek Enlightenment literature and on his conscious choice to write patriotic poetry in Greek inspired by the Greek revolution. The chapter attempts to complicate the picture of the poet’s national and cultural belongings, by shedding light on his activity as an Italian carbonaro during the years of the Greek revolution, and on his late decision to abandon once and for all his native Ionian Islands and their Greek cultural environment for Britain.