The Modern Greek Lament in the Twentieth Century: A Summary of Studies

Abstract

As the Greek lament has taken several types and forms throughout its historical and socio-cultural course, this article provides an overview of studies and scholarly approaches over the twentieth century under periodization, illustrating its significance on multidisciplinary grounds. By configuring a broader contextualization upon this question, the case-by-case study presentation documents the different lenses adopted to investigate it as a literary genre, musicological form, ethnological, cultural, social, religious and psychology-wise topic, as well as its presence in folklore studies, ethnomusicology, anthropology and ritual practices over the past century. This chronological arrangement, thus, enables a coherent structural understanding, foreshadows an amalgamation of angles into current research and sets the basis to appreciate lament’s spectrum, which still has a lot more to unveil.