SOURCE: Calotychos, Vangelis. “Thorns in the Side of Venice? Galanaki's Pasha and Pamuk's White Castle in the Global Market.” In Greek Modernism and Beyond, edited by Dimitris Tziovas, pp. 243-60. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997.

In the following essay, Calotychos offers a critical assessment of the appeal to Western audiences of The White Castle and Rhea Galanaki's Pasha, placing his discussion within the context of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and the global market for book sales.

Like any nostos, my return to my alma mater and Birmingham invites potential scenes of repetition to recall acts, emotions, and practices—loci for my self-(re)definition. This academic discussion over the contours of modernism is but one such instance. A more moving topos was my visit last night to a curry house in Sparkbrook where, fifteen years ago as a Londoner armed with the conventional wisdom that Brum and Bradford, with their...