Andreas Embirikos

Andreas Embirikos
Andreas Embiricos in Lausanne, 1920
Native name
Ανδρέας Εμπειρίκος
Born2 September 1901
Brăila, Kingdom of Romania
Died3 August 1975(1975-08-03) (aged 73)
Athens, Greece
OccupationPsychoanalyst, writer, poet
EducationNational and Capodistrian University of Athens, University of Genoa
Literary movementSurrealism, Generation of the '30s
Notable worksThe Great Eastern, Ypsikaminos
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Andreas Embirikos (/ɛmbɪˈrɪkɒs/; Greek: Ανδρέας Εμπειρίκος [embiˈrikos] Andréas Empeiríkos; September 2, 1901 August 3, 1975) was a Greek surrealist poet, writer, photographer, and one of the first Greek psychoanalysts. As a writer, he emerged from the Generation of the '30s and is considered one of the most important representatives of Greek surrealism. He studied psychoanalysis in France and was the first to practice it as a profession in Greece in the years 19351951. Out of his entire literary work, his first collection of poetry, titled Ypsikaminos, stands out as the first purely surrealist Greek text. Among his prose works, his bold erotic novel The Great Eastern was completed over a period of several decades becoming the lengthiest modern Greek novel. Described as Embirikos' "lifework", It was received with both praise and criticism for its libertine nature and highly erotic content. A large part of Embirikos' work was published well after his death.