Ο "χαρισματικός" μαθητής-επίδοξος συγγραφέας στα "Παιδιά της Νιόβης" του Τάσου Αθανασιάδη

Abstract

The principle contemporary theories on "giftedness" include well-developed "language skills" in the academic criteria that construct this conceptual category. Tasos Athanasiadis, "the most authentic, [perhaps], Greek classical novelist" (Tsouprou, 2013: 136) delves into the internal worlds of the Characters by espousing "psycho-logical realism", through which "the individual's psyche is depicted and broadened simultaneously, even in its most extreme manifestations, [such as that of high <linguistic intelligence>]" (Parisis & Parisis, 2005: 160). This study focuses on the "representation" of the "gifted" student-aspiring writer in "Athanasiadis' last major [novel]" (Stavropoulou, 2014: 430). Qualitative Content Analysis is proposed as the selected method of this study. The fictional "representation" of the "gifted" student-aspiring writer is "read" based on François Gagne's (1998) model of "giftedness-talent" differentiation˙ additionally, based on Vaggelis Athanasopoulos' (2010) "composite typology of Characters". The literary findings showcase the contribution of endogenous (motives, personality traits) and exogenous (family, peers, important life events) factors in the process of transforming the manifest natural ability (linguistic) to the systematically cultivated capability (literary). The findings of the study are interpreted according to the context (historical-social-ideological) of the time they "refer" to, Athanasiadis' undiminished interest in the developments in the field of Psychology, as well as his worldview.