CONDEMNED: A Book Talk with Translator Susan Matthias

“A Passionate love triangle. Jealousy. Murder. A universal tale of social injustice played out in a Greek village. The story of a marginal man imprisoned by forces greater than himself for a murder he did not commit. Condemned (1919) by Konstantinos Theotokis, translated by Susan Matthias and her late husband Miltiades Matthias, combines rich characterization with colorfully textured language and is narrated with a forward thrust that makes the novel a page turner even as it poses questions regarding the toll of guilt and the possibility. “ - Cosmos Publishing

In this virtual book club event hosted by the Center for Publishing & Applied Liberal Arts (PALA) and the Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL), go behind the scenes of how this first translation in the English language came to be. You will gain an understanding of the significance of Theotokis’s work in the larger context of Greek literature and more specifically the Folkloric Realism genre popular throughout Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Translator and Director of the Center for Publishing & Applied Liberal Arts (PALA) Jenny McPhee will engage the book’s translator, Susan Matthias, in a conversation about the novel’s legacy and relevance today, while sharing with the audience the considerations that went into the work’s translation.

Attendees are invited (but not required) to read the novel in advance and bring their questions to the event. The book is available for purchase directly from GreeceinPrint.com at 201-664-3494. A special 25% discount on the list price of $19.95 is available when purchasing the book by phone and mentioning participation in this event.

Condemned: A Novel

By Konstantinos TheotokisForeword by Vangelis CalotychosTranslated and introduced by Militiades and Susan Matthias

About Susan Matthias:

Susan Matthias teaches Greek and Roman classical texts at NYU SPS’s Academy of Lifelong Learning. This fall she is teaching the online continuing education course: The Greatest Journey of Them All: Reading Homer’s Iliad. Susan’s translation of Seferis’s only completed novel Six NIghts on the Acropolis is available as part of the Modern Greek Literature LIbrary from Cosmos Publishing. Her translations also have been published in The Journal of Modern Greek Studies, the Harvard Review, and Modernism/Modernity.

About Jenny McPhee:

Jenny McPhee is the Academic Director of the Center for Publishing and Applied Liberal Arts Continuing Education Programs and Clinical Assistant Professor. She is the author of the novels The Center of Things, No Ordinary Matter, and A Man of No Moon, and she co-authored Girls: Ordinary Girls and Their Extraordinary Pursuits. Her translations from the Italian include books by the authors Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi, Giacomo Leopardi, Curzio Malaparte, Anna Maria Ortese, Paolo Maurensig, and Pope John Paul II. She has taught literary translation at Princeton University and co-founded the Bronx Academy of Letters, an NYC public high school and middle school. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship.

About the NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning:

The Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) at the NYU School of Professional Studies is a community that brings together a diverse population of students of all ages committed to the ongoing and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge. Through the newly launched NYU SPS ALL website, students can explore upcoming continuing education course offerings in the humanities and global affairs as well as participate in events and clubs.

If you cannot access the event Zoom link, please email us at sps.pala.ce@nyu.edu.