From exclusion to familiarity: The question of otherness in contemporary Greek literature for young readers

摘要

This paper initiates an exploration into contemporary Greek literature for young adults and more specifically, literary texts with a social dimension. Contemporary Greek writers deliberately address social issues in a realistic manner by presenting all the different facets of Alterity: xenophobia, ethnocentrism, racism. Today these narratives pose new questions and attempt to familiarize the young public with an image of the Other, the Foreigner, the Different. The writers focus on the positive aspects of multiculturalism in contemporary societies in hopes of discrediting stereotypical images of the Other that continue to prevail in the collective imagination, to sensitize the public and ultimately to abolish the fault lines of bigotry.