Happy Holidays Corfu Magazine
Articles and Features (published quarterly) about Corfu and its many attractions
Vol. 1, No. 4; June 15, 2006
Corfu Muse
Durrell School of Corfu
Enjoys Local Support, International Interest
2006 sees the Durrell School of Corfu in its fifth year of activities. Starting in 2002, with classes in the Ionian Cultural Center (Faliraki) and the Corfu Reading Society, the school has attracted faculty and students from all parts of the world and from all age-groups, and with diverse interests and professional backgrounds. Its classes now take place in its new premises in the appropriately named Filellinon Street in the oldest part of Corfu Town.
Topics have included globalisation and nationalism, translation of Greek writers into English, terrorism, madness and creativity, borders and borderlands. In May 2006 (22-26) it hosts and international seminar on "The Emergence of Modern Greece: Politics, Literature and Society", with the participation of Nikos Papandreou, Yorgis Yatromanolakis, leading expert on Greek literature Roderick Beaton and former British ambassador to Greece, Michael Llewellyn Smith, now writing a biography of E. Venizelos. In June (5-9) the next seminar will discuss "Empire and Aftermath" with the participation of Ashis Nandy, the eminent Indian authority on post-independence development.
September 2006 sees the return of the renowned ecological campaigner David Bellamy who will preside over a discussion of "Tradition and Change in Rural Society" -- among the experts will be Mria Couroucli (author of a study of the Corfiot olive-growing tradition, based on the village of Episkepsi).
The Durrell School was founded in 2001-2002 by Richard Pine, who lives for six months of the year in Corfu and for six months in Ireland, and is an expert on the work of Lawrence Durrell, who lived in Corfu 1935-39 with his brother Gerald (author of My Family and Other Animals) -- the school is named in commemoration of the two brothers.
Richard Pine says: "The school has attracted the interest and support of many sectors of Corfiot society and the wider Greek community. We have received valuable sponsorship from the Municipality of Corfu, from Coca-Cola HBC, and from the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation. We have enjoyed the participation of Greek writers such as Eris Sotiropoulos, Apostolos Doxiadis, Nicholas Gage (Gatzoyannis), Theophanis Stavrou, Nikos Papandreou and Yorgis Yatromanolakis, and our seminar on "The Emergence of Modern Greece" is our way of paying tribute to our host country, to which we believe we are contributing significantly by extending the area of cultural tourism."
Pine announces that in the autumn of 2006 the Durrell School library and study centre will be open at its pemises in Filellion: "We created this library in the past five years, and we want to share with all the citizens of Corfu our collection of English-language books on Greek literature, Greek history, Corfiot traditions, as well as a general collection of fiction, biography and all the works of Lawrence Durrell and Gerald Durrell."
The school also possesses a unique collection of facsimilies of manuscripts and typescripts by Lawrence Durrell, which makes it an international focus for the study of this writer of worldwide significance.
In these five year the Durrell School has brought its students on field classes to many parts of Corfu, including the White house at Kalami (where Lawrence Durrell lived), the village of Old Periteia, a Venetian manor house in Agios Ilias owned by the school' administrator Alexina Ashcroft and her husband David. Classes have also taken place in Butrint (Albania) and Lia, the native village of Nicholas Gage in Epirus. This year the school will visit the Serbian Museum in Corfu Town and the Serbian Mausoleum on Vidos Island.
Pine says: "One of the most valuable experiences we can give our students is the field class to the Sylva Estate owned by one of our honorary patrons, Sylvia Dimitradis Steen, where she is breeding Skyros horses which are in dange of extinction on their native island. This is an excellent example of the work advocated all his life by Gerald Durrell, whose zoo in Jersey became the world centre for breeding programs designed to save species endangered in their natural environment."
Another aim of the Durrell School is to persuade the Municipality of Corfu to name a street or an open space in honour of the Durrell brothers. Pine says: "Gerald Durrell's three books about Corfu, including My Family and Other Animals, have sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The BBC films of My Family and Other Animals (1988 and remade in 2005) have been seen by millions of people, and his film documentary The Garden of the Gods (1966) was directly responsible for the growth in the tourism industry in Corfu. Lawrence Durrell's book about Corfu, Prospero's Cell (1949) has also created enormous interest in Corfu. Their contribution to our understanding of Corfu, and to the expansion of the tourism industry, should be acknowledged by naming a space in Corfu town in their honour."
Pine adds: "We have benefited very much from local support and we hope to increase our interaction with the people and institutions of Corfu through the use of the library and a regular program of social and cultural events which will also begin in the autumn of 2006. This will add to the development of cultural tourism in Corfu which the Durrell School has done much to stimulate in the first five years of its existence."
ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The Durrell School of Corfu seeks to provide a learning experience steeped in the culture and history of the Mediterranean, and drawing on the issues important to the Durrells.
From 2002, when the DSC held its inaugural term, until the present participants have come from all over the world including Albania, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, South America, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA. They included university professors, doctors, scientists, writers, botanists, journalists, in addition to undergraduate and graduate students. This confluence of learners and scholars fulfilled the school's mandate to explore cultural, ecological, artistic, and political issues of relevance to the twenty-first century world in a location that was special to the Durrells.
The School's annual sessions have highlighted the multicultural and interdisciplinary potential of a community of scholars dedicated to identifying and discussing the key topics of concern to the future of the arts and sciences and encouraging a new generation of students and scholars. The sessions also confirmed the relevance of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell to the landscape, mindscape and culture of this unique island – their contribution to world literature and science, to the understanding of cultural landscapes and maps of meaning, and to change and interdependence between the physical and social worlds.
The Durrell School of Corfu offers a variety of activities, ranging from a series of three week-long seminars in May, June and September on specific subjects (e.g., the 2005 topics included "madness and creativity" and "borders and borderlands") to excursions that explore the rich cultural history of the Mediterranean basin. Past and future field classes include Butrint (Albania), Old Perithia (Corfu), Lia (mainland Greece) and Kalami (Corfu) as well as walking tours of historic Corfu Town and its colonial architecture.
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and
Medscape Internet Development,
publishers of
Happy Holidays Corfu,
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welcomes the Durrell School to our directories.
durrells@otenet.gr
Richard Pine
Lawrence Durrell
Gerald Durrell
Lawrence Durrell (1912-90) was one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century. In addition to being a significant poet, dramatist, and travel writer, he wrote The Alexandria Quartet (1957-60), which changed the direction of the modern novel, The Avignon Quintet (1975-85), which achieved a synthesis of Western narrative style and Eastern philosophy, and his personal evocation of Corfu, Prospero's Cell (1945).
© 2005-2006 Happy Holidays Corfu
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