Dünya Giizeli: Cavafy's folkloric Odalisque

Abstract

Cavafy's overlooked poem ‘Dünya Güzeli’ reflects the seminal influence of folklore on the early writings of the poet, an influence which significantly shaped the contours of the Cavafy canon. The poem is a sophisticated attempt to synthesize the flourishing discourse of λαoγρα??α with the fashionable literary and painterly trends of Orientalism. It thus warrants a fuller appreciation as a complex text that documents Cavafy's emerging craft and anticipates his poetic hybridisation of East and West which finds its fullest expression in Cavafy's Orientalising Hellenism.