Kostas Charitos

 

Kostas Charitos

Main character: Detective Kostas Charitos
Country of origin: Greece
Main location: Athens

Creator: Pétros Márkaris
Born in: Istanbul, Turkey
Born on: 1 January 1937
Died in: Rome
Nationality: Greek

Literary series started in: 1995, Nυχτερινό δελτίο (Eng. transl.: The Late-Night News)
Original language: Greek
Publisher: Gavriilidis
Number of books (original editions): 14
Latest title published in: 2020, Ο φόνος είναι χρήμα (Eng. transl.: Murder is money)
Translations: Italian, French, English, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish, German, Brazilian

First television series started in: 1998-1999
Original title : Nυχτερινό δελτίο (Eng. transl.: The Late-Night News)
Producer: Frenzy Films and ERT 
Number of seasons: 1
Latest season broadcast: 1999
Transnational distribution: No

First television series started in: 2007-2008
Original title: Άμυνα ζώνης (Eng. transl.: Zone Defence), based on Petros Markaris’ namesake novel (1998) 
Producer: Bad Movies S.A., ERT, ZDF
Number of seasons: 1
Latest season broadcast: 2008
Transnational distribution: No

Case study rationale:

Pétros Márkaris was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1937. His family moved to Athens in 1954, but did not settle permanently there until 1964. Márkaris is considered one of the most representative authors of the Mediterranean strand of European crime fiction. Beyond authoring some 20 novels, Markaris wrote several plays and cooperated with Theo Angelopoulos on a number of film scripts. He also translated several German dramas into Greek. The Kostas Charitos series of novels are very popular in Greece as well as in several European countries, having being translated into 10 different languages. The main hero and first person narrator is a detective in the Athenian criminal police in his fifties, with a squabbling, fairly uneducated, and TV-addicted, but dearly loved wife, an aspiring, but stubborn, law student daughter, and an unpleasant, brown-nosing boss. Being somewhat old-fashioned in his personal views, Charitos deplores the loss of Greek traditions, dislikes the transformation of Greek society and despises the political and economic corruption that plagues the country. The space in which most of the novels’ plots takes place is the urban web of Athens and the broader area of Attica. The spatial setting highlights the polarities of contemporary Greek society: the petty bourgeois neighborhoods of Athens are in contrast with the luxurious suburbs; or, nearby the most iconic archaeological touristic sites of the city, such as the Akropolis, there are traces that bring into sight the consequences of the economic crisis.

Online Resources

 

Watch

Petros Markaris talks about the culture of corruption in Greece [in German]:

Petros Markaris talks about the culture of corruption in Greece [in German]:

My Athens, a documentary on Pétros Markaris’ life and work directed by Günter Schilhan for the Austrian television, 2012:

“Grecia hoy”, conversation with Pétros Markaris, 2014 [in Spanish]:

 “L’ écrivain et ses villes”, lecture given by Pétros Markaris at the Rencontres internationales de Genève (Fictions. Penser le monde par la littérature, 27 September 2016) [in French]:

“The Greeks are to blame”, interview with Pétros Markaris on DW, the German television channel, 2017:

Pétros Markaris presents Offshore at Espacio Fundacíon Telefónica, 2017 [in Spanish]:

Pétros Márkaris talks about the Kostas Charitos detective saga at Biblioteche Civiche Torinesi, 2018 [in Italian]:

Pétros Markaris interview with Pedro Olalla at Casa del Mediterraneo, Alicante, Spain, 2019 [in Spanish]:

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