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PENELOPE DELTA, A RECENTLY DISCOVERED WRITER

The aim of this article is to present a Greek writer, Penelope Delta. This writer has recently come up in the field of the studies of the Greek literature and, although there are neither many translations of her works in foreign languages nor many theses or dissertations, she was chosen for the great interest for her works. Her books have been read by many generations, so she is considered a classical writer of Modern Greek Literature. The way she uses the Greek language, the unique characters of her heroes that make any child or adolescent identified with them, the understood organization of her material are only a few of the main characteristics and advantages of her texts. It is also of high importance the fact that her books can be read by adults, as they can provide human values, such as love, hope, enjoyment of life, the educational significance of playing, the innocence of the infancy, the adventurous adolescence, even the unemployment, the value of work and justice. Thus, the educative importance of her texts was the main reason for writing this article. As for the structure of the article, at first, it presents a brief biography of the writer. The information of her personal life focuses on the facts that affected her way of writing. A characteristic example is her relations developed with other writers and the Ion Dragoumis, a great fighter who defended the liberation of Macedonia. In addition, many elements of her writing method can be presented by the letters she had sent to those personalities. The second part of the article is the presentation of her book O Trelantonis (Ο Τρελαντώνης), which is proposed as an appropriate text for teaching at school or even a seminar or lecture. After the presentation of the hypothesis, the author presents a teaching method of this text in a great detail. This method is called interpretative and it is suggested to be used as a teaching technique of the collaboration and team-work. This means that the teacher reads the text, while the students have to note the literature personalities and/or their main characteristics, their emotions and/or thoughts and reactions. On the other hand, it may demand the basic elements of the form of the text, such as the narrative techniques, the organization of the text and the plot of the story. Thus, the students have a general idea about the story and they are able to explain it. After that, the teacher arranges a dialogue with the students and they interpret the text. Posing and answering questions, expressing personal opinions, defending their position with argumentations are necessary for understanding the text. This method has as a result not only the interpretation of the text, but also the cultivation of the dialogue and the free expression and thinking. The students understand the importance of democracy and their self-confidence can be developed in the frame of the free expression and argumentation. After analyzing the text, the students are divided into groups. Each group must consist of students of all levels in order to have a balance. Each team has its name, which is considered essential. In this paper, there are proposed the following teams: Philologists: They will have tasks as far as it concerns the narration, the language and the interpretation of the text on the whole. Historians: This team will examine the historical frame of the text and if it can be used as an historical source. Sociologists / Psychologists: The students of this team will have to examine the psychology of the characters and the impacts the events have on them. This psychological / sociological approach of the text will make them understand better the characters and explain their thoughts and emotions. So, the emotional intelligence of the students is also cultivated. Artists: The members of this team will be directors and/or actors. The students will think how the plot could be a movie or a theatrical piece, write the script, imagine or even create the scenes and play roles. Thus, the artistic abilities of the students are developed. These are the teams proposed. Undoubtedly, there may be a lot of other teams with different tasks to do. Any teacher can imagine and create teams with various names and exercises to do. After the collaborative work, each team presents its results to the others. In this part, the students tell their points of view, find mistakes or point out the strong elements of the work done. The free expression of feedback by all the teams is considered valuable for the improvement of themselves and their way of working. Students of each team write down the feedback told by their classmates and they use it for the amelioration of their projects. After having completed them, the second presentation is arranged, where there can also be given a chance to discuss again. The results can be presented orally, but the most common method is the presentation in power-point. In this case, bringing tablets to the school classroom and using them for finding information could be proved extremely useful and as an attractive teaching method. The teaching plan proposed can be adapted in any teaching environment as it is characterized by flexibility. It is thought that the teaching methods provided can be adopted by anyone who teaches or he/she is interested in literature. Their advantages, such as the cultivation of imagination, critical thinking and the creativity of the young people, the understanding of the importance of free expression and the democratic dialogue, make this teaching method quite contributive, not only for the students, but also for the teacher.

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