Issue 3 - Crises: Living in a Changing World

Zoe Detsi-Diamanti is Assistant Professor in the Department of American Literature and Culture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She has been teaching and researching in the field of 18th – and 19th- century American culture, society, and political ideology with emphasis on early American drama. Her publications include a book titled Early American Women Dramatists (New York: Garland, 1998) as well as articles in New England Theater Journal, American Drama, American Studies, Prospects. She has also co-edited two collections of essays, The Flesh Made Text (New York: Peter Lang, 2007) and The Future of Flesh (New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009).

Tatiani Rapatzikou is Assistant Professor at the department of American Literature and Culture. She holds an M.A. (1996) from Lancaster University in Contemporary Literary Studies and a Ph.D. (2001) in Contemporary American Literature from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. For her Ph.D. research she was funded by the Board of Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y). Also, she received the Arthur Miller Centre Award (2000) and the BAAS Short Term Travel Award (2000) for her research in the U.S.A. and Canada. In summer 2009, she was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the M.I.T. Comparative Media Studies program, while in Spring 2012 she was a Visiting Research School at the Program in Literature at Duke University, U.S.. She teaches courses on 20th century American literature and poetry. Her research interests are in Contemporary American Literature and the New Media, Postmodern Fiction and Poetry, the Technological Uncanny, and Cyberculture/Cyberpunk.

BREAKFAST ON PLUTO: CHANGING WORLD – CHANGING IDENTITIES

I'm Katerina Delikonstantinidou and I'm a fairy-teller. I tell fairytales of all kinds but my favorites are those that touch upon the actual life-worlds of people that I’ll never meet. I'm an M.A. student at the American Studies Department of Aristotle’s School of English and my whole life revolves around cultural studies these days; (re)searching has become my job, my hobby and my means of having fun. I aspire to be a wise fairy-teller one day; to both amuse and educate my listeners or my readers. To that purpose I study, learn and write as much as I can, as hard as possible. As I see it, wisdom is the only way of dealing with mortality. Enjoy!

I'm Dimitra Efstathiou and this is my last year of studies in School of English in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. I would like to pursue a career in literary translation as well as in writing. The piece I delivered for the ECHOES magazine helped me keep in touch with the part of myself that loves writing and gave me a chance to share my thoughts with other readers.

I’m Dimitra Gkotosopoulou and at the present time I’m doing an MA in American Literature and Culture. My dream is to follow an academic career and writing, especially poetry and lyrics, is my way of expression, questioning and discovering everything, most of all myself.

I'm Karampela Elli, and I'm currently an undergraduate student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. A lover and admirer of English Literature, I wish to acquire as much knowledge as I can and contribute as much as is possible to the field. Romanticism is my primary interest, and I would certainly characterize myself as crazy about the Romantics. Literature is my dear companion at all times. Recently, I tried my hand at creative writing, and I can fairly say that I enjoyed putting down my thoughts, ideas and feelings. Literature and writing certainly have a liberating effect.

Evgenia Kleidona is a second-year undergraduate student in the School of English. Since her early childhood she has been irresistibly drawn to the world of technology as much as to the world of fantasy. Growing up and through the different stages of her life, she has discovered and relished the invaluable effects of creative writing, both as a means of self-expression and as a means of self-reflection.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF CRISIS: FROM ELIA KAZAN’S AMERICA, AMERICA TO ETERNITY

My name is Anastasia Mani and I live in Larissa. I have graduated from the School of English of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and I’m currently in my last year of postgraduate studies in the School of French. Over the past six years I have been teaching English mainly to adults. It is quite surprising that literature, cinema and other various aspects of art can be so effective in the learning process.

My name is Fjoralba Miraka and I graduated from our department in March. Now I'm a graduate student in American Literature. Writing for me emerged as a need to expose what can’t be directly articulated. Then it became a habitual passion, part of my everyday life. Now it has evolved into a world on its own, a world different from the one I live. Writing is an illusion, I transform nightmares into wonderful dreams.