Ypsikaminos

Ypsikaminos (Υψικάμινος, lit. 'Blast furnace') is the first poetic collection by Greek poet and writer Andreas Embirikos. It was published in 1935 in Athens—the author's first published work—and it is considered as the first purely surrealist Greek text. It comprises a collection of 63 prose poems. Unusual for its time, it was received with skeptisism and derision by contemporary literary circles. The work raised concerns not only for its near unintelligibility, but also for the abrupt juxtaposition of linguistic styles that were until then considered incompatible. The poet frequently used elements of the Greek literary language, (Katharevousa)—an unconventional choice in poetry of the era—and by mixing it with that of Demotic, targeted the diglossic conventions of his time, essentially by violating them. Ypsikaminos certainly introduced an innovative way of writing poetry in Greece. In order to achieve a diversion from conventional writing, the poet used the method of écriture automatique (automatic writing), which had already been used by the surrealists of Paris, as well as the unconscious mind, which he had learned from his studies in psychoanalysis.