Travel writing essay - How is the island of Corfu portrayed in Gerald Durrell’s novel My Family and PDF

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How is the island of Corfu portrayed in Gerald Durrell’s novel My Family and Other Animals and ITV’s adaptation The Durrells in comparison to my own experience being a Corfu native?...

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How is the island of Corfu portrayed in Gerald Durrell’s novel My Family and Other Animals and ITV’s adaptation The Durrells in comparison to my own experience being a Corfu native? The allure of Greece and its many islands has been a common theme in culture and literature for hundreds of years, from the Grand Tours of the 17th and 18th century to the romantic honeymoon settings of the 21st century. The rugged terrain, rich history and immersive culture offers an appealing escape to everyone’s psyche, and this is explained in its popularity as a holiday destination for the 26 million tourists1 who visit every year. For the focus of this essay, the island of Corfu will be the main topic of discussion. It is an island that holds great significance for myself, having been born there and lived there for 12 years of my life, alongside my family. Therefore, it can be said that I myself have become somewhat of an expert when it comes to the island, with a sort of territorial side of this. As a result, I am always interested in the island’s depiction in literature and film, seeing whether or not they capture the true essence of Corfu in their portrayal. Most famous of the literature’s produced about Corfu has to be Gerald Durrell’s novels The Corfu Trilogy2 which was further adapted into a four series show for ITV in 2016 called The Durrells3. The novels follow the Durrell family in an autobiographical story of their time on the island in the 1930’s, before the outbreak of the Second World War. Considering how much the United Kingdom has evolved since the 30’s, it can be argued that surely the Corfu described here is one of the past and must have changed. Yet I argue that, unlike the fast-paced western ideology we have in this country to constantly be developing, Corfu has remained at its slow pace, slow developing style ever since. The Corfu that Gerald described in the 30’s is very much the same Corfu that I grew up in; untouched and tranquil, with places feeling as if you have stepped back in time. Firstly, I want to address in this essay the allure of Greece and why it is so popular with travellers as a destination. See the thing with Greece is that it offers a sense of the exotic and oriental without actually having to travel further than four hours on a plane. For adventurers and sailors back in the 17th and 18th century, it was as far you could reach before experiencing what was described as the savagery of the Middle East. As mentioned previously, the Grand Tour’s undertaken by upper class aristocratic young men often involved trekking through Greece to align themselves with classical civilisation. Specific organisations were set up that sponsored young men on archaeological digs, such as the Society of Dilettanti, which sponsored numerous trips for the purpose of researching ruins from Ancient Greece.4 In summary, it can be stated that Greece offered an escape, back then and to this day now. For the Durrell family, Corfu was the opportunity to start a fresh and get their lives back on track. In the opening scenes of the first episode for the ITV drama series, Corfu is depicted in a greater light than the scenes in Bournemouth. For example, the opening shot of the island, with the deep blue water and shimmering sun stand in stark contrast to the dreary and lacklustre shot of the beaches in England. Light and colour enter the story as the Durrells begin in Corfu; this is the beginning of the restoration of their lives. 1team G. Greece Breaks All Tourism Records, Welcomes 33 Million Travelers in 2018. GTP Headlines. https://news.gtp.gr/2019/01/31/greece-breaks-all-tourism-records-welcomes-33-million-travelers-2018/. Published 2020. Accessed January 29, 2020. 2 Durrell G. The Corfu Trilogy. (Newburyport: Open Road Media; 2016.) 3 Nye, S The Durrells [TV series] United Kingdom: Sid Gentle Films; 2016 4 Eisner, Rober Travels to an Antique Land (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991; p71)

To compare the show, we turn to the first chapter of The Corfu Trilogy. Gerald’s first description of the island is evocative of the senses; he is experiencing the beauty of the island for the first time and is relaying the emotions he felt back to the readers. The description of the sea being ‘flamed for an instant and the changed to a deep royal purple flecked with green,’5 alludes to the richness of the colour in this scene but also creates a feeling of the mythological. For a small boy travelling on a boat and visiting Greece for the first time, there would have been something magical for Gerald seeing these exotic waters for the first time. Durrell goes on further to depict to us the ‘smooth shoulder of rust-red cliffs carved into a series of giant caves. The dark waves lifted our wake and carried it gently towards them, and then crumpled and hissed thirstily among the rocks.’6 Red-rust seems to be an interesting take on the cliffs; to me I always pictured them as more chalk bleached, and so one could argue this minor detail to be slightly misleading to readers. Apart from the natural erosion of the cliffs, you can very much still experience the views of the cliffs and hidden caves via boats. Many, such as the cove pictured before, are only accessible by boat. The whole experience for someone who is not used to mooring up and swimming across to shore can be quite challenging. I learnt how to properly dock a boat successfully at the age of seven. The key is to ensure you are not too close to shore that you scrape the bottom of the boat along the rocks, but also to not be too far out that the swim is too challenging, and you tire against the current. The waters surrounding these monstrous caves are ice cold, due to the lack of sunlight that can reach them. Jumping off the back of a boat and plunging into the turquoise waters below, it can feel like a sort of cleansing ritual. You feel any tension that you previously held melt off of you as the bubbles clear. With a decent pair of goggles, you can experience a whole new world just bursting under the surface. Schools of fish, elegantly weaving through the rocks and moss, old fish traps that have long been abandoned and millions of smooth pebbles drifting with the current; all of these add layers to the characteristics of the Ionian Sea. Having grown up with a cove five hundred metres from our house, I learnt to be a confident swimmer at a faster rate than most. The experience of having to swim to a hidden cove is an experience I find hard to put into words. The lack of ease of access makes the journey have greater importance; you cannot easily reach beauty without fighting for it in some way. Corfu is often referred to as being one of the greenest islands off Greece, largely due to the vast and lush vegetation, cypresses and famous kumquat and olive groves. Corfu now is still very much an island full of colour and life. Durrell notes how ‘the island sloped gently down, blurred with the silver and green iridescence of olives, with here and there an admonishing finger of black cypress against the sky.’7 My grandparents made their fortune through olive groves and the production of olive oil, owning up to 6 plots of olive groves in the prime of their business. They found a nuance in their business, giving tours to foreign tourists who 5 Durrell G. The Corfu Trilogy. (Newburyport: Open Road Media; 2016,p15) 6 (Ibid.,p15) 7 (Ibid.,p15)

lapped up at the opportunity to tour a famous olive oil production and get a first-hand look at how the Greeks farmed these trees with minimal machinery or electricity. It was a niche company; my pappoús and I spent hot summer evenings, when the air was so thick with heat it made it hard to breathe, sitting on stools and sorting through buckets of olives. The feel of the smooth skin of the olives running between my index finger and thumb, the gentle beads of sweat that built up across my brows and the smell of tobacco from the pipe gentle pressed between pappoús lips all bring up the feelings of nostalgia and relate back to the heartfelt memories I have of the island. Casting back to the opening scene of Corfu in the Durrells, there are more feelings of nostalgia brought up by this. The cobbled and narrow streets with the white and yellow washed buildings are all too familiar to the Corfu I know and so fondly adore. (The two pictures before offer a comparison; the left being in the tv show and the right being a photograph of my own) 8

The show has been able to capture the architecture and subtle characteristics of the streets of Corfu town without drifting too far from the real thing. Nowadays you can find rows of independent cafes that serve Ionian pilsners9 at every hour, tourists shops with the printed ‘I Love Corfu’ t-shirts as well as an array of fridge magnets and local amenities such as the fish mongers who compete with their fresh stock and haggle tourists to buy their delicacies. For a tourist first visiting the island, they may experience a sense of culture shock when interacting with native Greeks, especially for the first time. The Greek language is intense and fast paced. Greeks are also quite temperamental people; it is impossible to walk the length of a street without noticing someone raising their arms or yelling. Durrell describes his first encounter of the Greeks in his novel, stating that the man ‘turned on the drivers a blast of Greek that almost swept them off their feet.’10 This is quite a realistic depiction of day to day spats between us Greeks. Whilst of course by shouting alone, no one can be literally swept off of their feet. However, it is quite amazing how quickly Greeks talking raise their voices and use hyperbolic arm and hand gestures. Nye’s television depiction of the fiery Greek temper is shown in the scene where the Durrells are touring their new home, and 8 Nye, S The Durrells [TV series] United Kingdom: Sid Gentle Films; 2016, (Series 1, Episode 1) 9 Ionian pilsner is famous on Corfu- Corfu Beer is the first brewery to serve real ale in Greece and their base is not far from where I grew up. 10 Durrell G. The Corfu Trilogy. (Newburyport: Open Road Media; 2016,p25)

Spiros is having a heated discussion with the landlord. In the shot, the pair are loudly shouting and for the Durrells observing, can be considered aggressive. Spiros even goes as far as breaking a chair; yet as quickly as the argument began, it is resolved. Cooking and cuisine are another characteristic of Greek culture that is near and dear to my heart, and so its depiction in literature has to be closely aligned with the truth. The Mediterranean diet and times can again cause a sense of culture shock to tourists as traditionally, it moved away from western ideas of grab and go. It is rare to walk into a Greek household without ‘the scent of herbs and the sharp tang of garlic and onions.’11 You cannot escape garlic in a Greek household; there is a way to include it in almost every meal possible, and not in reasonable amounts but large quantities of garlic. Being able to source homegrown or locally grown products is important to the Greeks on Corfu, which maintained a largely self-sufficient island during much of my younger years. Fishermen would depart in the early hours of the morning and arrive back by nine with hordes of beautiful scaled fish, plenty of octopus and lobsters galore. As a child, I would be sent down to the port with €5 to purchase the freshest calamari and white bait for my giagiá to turn into some form of masterpiece for mesimeriano. One aspect of Rye’s television show was when Spiros mentions to the newly arrived Durrells that there are ‘lots of empty houses on the island.’12 Whilst this was a mention of the state of the island in the 30’s, it is still relevant to today. After the economic crisis in 2007/8, many housing projects that had been started were abandoned, as materials and labour became too expensive. Now it is impossible to drive from village to village without noticing the concrete skeletons of what were meant to be houses; projects people had hoped to finish but never truly started. Along with these are the array of crumbling and abandoned older properties, which have been reclaimed by nature and are bursting with ivy and other greenery. You could buy them for as little as one euro but spend hundreds of thousands restoring them. The idea that the ‘Greeks can be very conservative,’13 is another theme that Nye touches on in his adaptation. The conversation between Mrs Durrell and her daughter Margot, about the skimpiness of her swimsuit, highlights a certain attitude that women’s bodies could not be shown in such a way as it may cause offense. This 1930’s attitude no longer remains in the Greece I grew up in; nudist beaches are certainly alive and thriving, with the Greeks accepting and almost celebrating natural bodies in a more open way that we do in the West. Another way to look at the idea of Greek’s being conservative is the idea of gender dynamics. For this argument, it depends on a tourist’s personal background to consider whether the Greeks are conservative. For those coming from areas such as the Middle East or Asia, they may find the Greeks progressive in their lifestyle. For the sake, we can look at it from a more western lens. It is typical for men to grow up in families with strong, matriarchal mothers, grandmothers, aunts. Women organise the family and are seen as a boss; my giagiá being a prime example of this. If you angered her, you’d be fearful more so than any other family member. Another aspect of family and gender is that Greek families are very much communal in almost everything they do, rather than working as individuals. You will often find family run businesses, whether that be supermarkets that cater for tourists or traditional taverners that are so good even the locals flock to it. I recall countless evenings in the height of summer working as a waitress in one of my uncle’s taverners, providing tourists 11 (Ibid.,p33) 12 Nye, S The Durrells [TV series] United Kingdom: Sid Gentle Films; 2016, (Series 1, Episode 1) 13 (Ibid., series 1, episode 1)

with a flare of Greek culture in the traditional meals we offered. The men of the family would provide the muscle and whilst the women were in the kitchen; for some this may seem like casual sexism against the genders, however for the Greeks, this is the traditional structure of power in a family. Even though my giagiá was in the kitchen, everyone reported to her, no matter if it was my uncle’s business or not. Drawing to a conclusion, it is clear that certain aspects of Greek culture are accurately reflected in Durrell’s novel as well as Rye’s adaptation. The Corfu depicted in the 1930’s has not dramatically changed as much as other civilisations here in Europe, this includes attitudes to life as well as the structure of the island itself. Whilst now Corfu has electricity, you can largely live on the island at the slow pace similar to what the Durrell’s experienced, all whilst still enjoying the niche characteristics that come with being submerged in Greek culture. And whilst it is safe to say that even though Greece is an easily accessible island, its culture and ways of life differ to that of British culture. Family and basic everyday events are still largely rooted in traditions, and whilst these may come as a shock to tourists, they are easily adaptable to those visiting the island or staying more permanently. Word Count- 2662 Bibliography Durrell G. The Corfu Trilogy. (Newburyport: Open Road Media; 2016,p25) Eisner, Rober Travels to an Antique Land (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991; p71) Nye, S The Durrells [TV series] United Kingdom: Sid Gentle Films; 2016, (Series 1, Episode 1) Photographs provided are my own unless specified team G. Greece Breaks All Tourism Records, Welcomes 33 Million Travelers in 2018. GTP Headlines. https://news.gtp.gr/2019/01/31/greece-breaks-all-tourism-records-welcomes33-million-travelers-2018/. Published 2020. Accessed January 29, 2020....