The late professor Con Castan was an unusual man: a public and, at the same time, a private person.
A popular and, occasionally, controversial personality. However, a justifiable question that arises in Professor Castan’s case is this: why did he decide, at an advanced stage of his life, to begin a trip of self-discovery in relation to his Greekness? As far as I can tell, this trip of self-discovery and return to his Greek identity and roots had begun to preoccupy him seriously at the age of forty, that is at the start of the ’70s.
This preoccupation with his Greekness came to fruition in the ’80s where we have a number of publications written by him dealing with multiculturalism and migrant writing – especially with Greek-Australian literature. At this point it is worth clarifying that Professor Castan is not the first person of Greek origin who decided to learn Greek at an advanced age. The Greek national poet Dionysios Solomos had lived most of his life outside of Greece and had learnt Greek as a grown up, writing his most well-known poem “Ode to liberty” (which subsequently became the national anthem of Greece) in 1823 at the age of twenty five.
Professor Castan – a man of insight and open-minded when it came to social concerns – could foresee in the ’70s all the social activity taking place behind the scenes, which would soon lead to the realisation of multiculturalism, as an integral element of life and culture in Australia. Thus it is not by accident that his “turn” at exploring his Greekness began to take shape in that ’70s, which is considered the forerunner decade of Australian multiculturalism. Characteristic and timely are the remarks he made about this decade in his memorable essay “Greek Australian Literature – an essay”, published as an introduction to the bilingual anthology Reflections, of which I will speak shortly. The following is an indicative sample:
“[…] essentially Greek Australian literature is the product of the post World War II years and especially of the years from about 1970 onwards. The seventies are of great importance for three things happened more or less simultaneously which stimulated the growth of this literature. One was that those who had come in the mass migration of the fifties and sixties began to have time and energy to devote to literature, something which only a small number (and they for the most part associated with journalism) had previously been able to do. The second was the adoption by the (Gough) Whitlam government of the policy of multiculturalism which meant a change from a policy of harsh assimilation of the non-Anglophone migrant to one of integration or at least less harsh and more patient assimilation. One important consequence of this was that several Greek-writing authors were able to get Literature Board Grants for translation and publication. And the third was the appearance in print of the second generation, born in Australia (or educated here) and writing for the most part in English and able to gain access to the major publishing houses as well as getting grants (p. 18-19).”
READ MORE: In memory of Con Castan (1931-2012): Friend, sage, gentleman
Two women who played a significant role in Professor Castan’s life have also contributed decisively to this exploration of his Greekness. Initially it was his mother Sophia and much later his second wife, Voula. The first was the role model who bequeathed him (literally and metaphorically) with the spiritual aspect of Greekness, since his biological Greekness was already inherent in his blood. In the same way, she instilled in him her love of music. For this reason this ‘turn’ to his ancestry can justifiably be considered as an imperative homage to the memory of this remarkable woman who, with her cosmopolitan spirit (as she was a product of Asia Minor) initiated him to ‘ευ ζειν’ (“the good life”). So this “turn”, which I mentioned before, gave him a rare opportunity to explore a dormant aspect of his identity by opening up at the same time a new, exciting chapter in his research interests.
The other woman in Con’s life (his second wife Voula) was a catalyst, as she came to complement and complete what his mother had started years ago. To this end, Voula’s help was invaluable as she herself was Greek. This means that he was given an ideal opportunity to ulitise various Greek elements with which he was not very familiar. All the above is documented sincerely in Professor Castan’s autobiographical chapter entitled “Introducing Myself – Discordant Concord” which is included as an Epilogue to his posthumous book ‘The Greeks of Brisbane: Migration, Arrival, Home’, published in August 2013 where, among other things, he confesses: “From university onward, I moved away from Greek life and for thirty years did not speak one word of the language. I did visit my mother regularly, but she was happy to converse in English. It was after the break-up of my first marriage and my entering into the second that I began to explore my Greekness. I spent sabbaticals in Greece which enabled me to master Modern Greek.” (ibid, p. 203).
The aforementioned details are important since they shed light as to why this already successful academic decided, at a ripe age, to engage himself with a new field of study. This was not at all easy and, most importantly, it was at the expense of his bright academic career, as he states emphatically: “This [his exploration of his Greekness] affected my career as an English Literature academic, because I put an enormous amount of effort and energy into the recovery and further development of my Greek language skills, which, of course, was at the cost of research in English and/or Australian literature.” And he goes on to elaborate on his crucial decision by adding the following: “I don’t regret this because I am proud of my skills in Greek which I write and read on a regular basis. It has helped me to embrace and feel embraced by the rich cultural life of the Greek community in Brisbane, and I am proud of my achievements in enriching this culture.”
Naturally, Professor Castan chose to engage mainly with Greek-Australian Literature for obvious reasons: apart from being a Greek-Australian himself and being keenly interested in literature (let’s not forget that he had been teaching it for numerous years at the University), another added reason was that literature combined various fields of study, such as linguistics, literature, culture, migration, etc.
In the last part of this article, I would like to demonstrate briefly and as simply as possible (given that this topic is vast and complicated) why I consider professor Castan as one of the most authoritative voices, and indeed a reformer in the study of Greek-Australian Literature.
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The fluid, turbid and messy landscape of Greek-Australian Literature was destined to be sorted out by Professor Castan towards the end of the ’80s, on the occasion of a bilingual anthology which was published in 1988, titled ‘Reflections: Selected Works from Greek Australian Literature’. This bilingual anthology, with its strictly selected writers and their representative works, as well as the extensive and thorough scholarly introduction (with well documented arguments and up-to-date bibliography) by Professor Castan was bound to constitute a landmark for multicultural literature in Australia – especially Greek-Australian Literature, which was the oldest and possibly the richest in the Antipodes. In hindsight I would characterize it as a ‘literary manifesto’, or perhaps a ‘literary charter’ which sets out with clarity the foundations and principles that (should) govern the complicated field of migrant/multicultural literature, including Greek-Australian Literature. Evidence of this is the fact that the writer of this introduction in the Reflections touches from the start (from the very first introductory paragraph) upon the quintessence of the whole matter (which is no other than the parameter for quality, which is the corner-stone of any literary creation) by stating categorically: The publication of this anthology is an important landmark in the history of Greek-Australian literature; for it is the first attempt to select, to choose, to say “these (whatever the case may be with others) have quality”, “these are significant as works of literature”. […] I would suggest that the idea of literature in our century is impossible without the notion of quality, no matter how problematical the concept and difficult the practice. (p. 3).
Professor Castan, with this fine and insightful essay which accompanied, perhaps, the most serious anthology of its kind up to now in Australia, promoted and propagated as nobody else his problematisation and position on issues pertaining to multiculturalism and Greek-Australian Literature in the wider Australian culture. But, at the same time, he made a name and distinguished himself thanks to this discipline, by leaving indelibly his mark on this virgin field.
When I learnt of his death, I was the first to rush and publish an obituary in the Melbourne Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos entitled: ‘Con Castan’s passing leaves a huge void’ (15 November, 2012). And it is not at all accidental that this text of mine was not an ordinary obituary but rather an authentic celebration of his life, exactly as he would have liked it himself. In the final analysis, I have no doubt at all that Con’s life was “a life worth living”, simply because it was “an examined life”, to quote our greatest ancient philosopher Socrates.
Dr John Vasilakakos is an academic and acclaimed writer, critic and literary translator. His publications include 22 books and numerous articles internationally. His latest book is entitled: Nikos Kahtitsis: A Temperamental Hero of Kafka (Odos Panos Publishing, Athens, 2019). The above article is based on his memorial lecture at the “Solomos Society” (Brisbane, 20-3-2019).