The book is a selection of fourteen scientific papers presented at the International Scientific Conference "Nikos Kazantzakis 2007: Fifty Years Later" (University of Crete, Heraklion & Rethymno, May 18-21, 2007). The aim of the Conference was to establish the stance of the contemporary scientific community towards Kazantzakis' work, a writer who continues, as can be seen from the included studies, to be a "subject of controversy."
It is characteristic that for Kazantzakis' magnum opus, the Odyssey, there are rather limited discussions in only two works. The same is true for the Askitiki. Among the fourteen papers, eight refer to the novels (Filippidis, Kapsomenos, Papadakou, Paschalis, Giovas, Paparousi, Papachristopoulos, Kastrinakis). Kazantzakis' novels have been his most beloved texts by the reading public, but, as this Conference further proves, they are also a favored subject of critics.
A series of studies refer to the other literary genres of Kazantzakis' production (Pourgouris Kehagioglou, Glitzouris, Meeni). A final category of works includes studies that focus on how others perceived Kazantzakis as a person and as a writer (Farinos, Dimiroulis).
The texts included are:
- Angela Kastrinaki: "Kazantzakis the Gnostic"
- Dimitris Dimiroulis: "Nikos Kazantzakis and the Generation of `30. The Traces of Absence"
- George Kehagioglou: "A few observations and thoughts triggered by the Central Asian and Far Eastern literary dimension in N. Kazantzakis"
- Dimitris Giovas: "The Temptation of the Archangel and the Meaning of Sacrifice: The Interpretation of the Mask in Christ Recrucified"
- Marita Paparousi: "Aspects of the Body in the Novel `Christ Recrucified`"
- Mihail Paschalis: "The Topography of Zorba: Ideological Function and Intertexts"
- Antonis Glitzouris: "The Repairs of the Master Builder"
- Panagiota Meeni: "Shaping a Revolutionary Prophet for Cinema: The Script MuhaMetis (1932) by N. Kazantzakis"
- G. Farinos - Malamataris: "Four Women Biographing Kazantzakis"
- Nikos Papachristopoulos: "The Law of the Mother: N. Kazantzakis `The Last Temptation`"
- Marinos Pourgouris: "Totem and Taboo: Kazantzakis as a Reader of Freud"
- Eratosthenes G. Kapsomenos: "Significant Codes and Value Patterns of Crete in the Work of Nikos Kazantzakis"
- Dimitris Papadakou: "‘Boss, I have never loved anyone like you’: Alexis Zorba and the Poetics of Homosociality"
- S. N. Filippidis: "The Descendants of Dostoevsky and Kazantzakis"
