Constantinos Theotokis

Biography

Stefanos - Konstantinos Theotokis (Greek: Στέφανος-Κωνσταντίνος Θεοτόκης, March 13, 1872 – July 1, 1923) was a Greek writer and translator, an important representative of the Ionian School. He was involved in both prose and poetry, and translated works by William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and others. His best-known works are the novels Honor and Money and The Convict and the novel The Slaves in Their Fetters. The prose of K. Theotokis made a significant contribution to Greek literature. In his extensive short stories: The Price and the Money, The Life and Death of the Caravel, The Convict and The Slaves in Their Chains, the dramatic nature of the narrative and the realistic portrayal of life in an ethnographic atmosphere, also imbued with a philosophical mood, are evident. His short stories, which were first published in the magazine Techni by K. Hatzopoulos and in Numa, and which were later published under the title Korfiatikes historis, portray Corfiot life of the time with simplicity and austerity, with crude and harsh images. It is a fact that he was influenced by Nietzsche from the early period of his writing activity, when he wrote prose pieces such as The Passion (1899) and short stories such as Pistoma. His poetic writing is dominated by translations of Shakespeare, who rendered The Tempest, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello in verse. He also translated Virgil's Georgics, Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea, Plato's Phaedo, and from Sanskrit: Sakuntala, Malavika and Agnemitra. He also wrote some sonnets that were distinguished by their subtlety of feeling. K. Theotokis, knowing socialism, also participated in the founding of the Socialist Group and the Mutual Aid Workers' Association of Corfu (1910-1914), while at the same time supporting the movement for the emancipation of women. He died in Corfu at the age of 51, in July 1923, from cancer.