#  Introduction by Stratis Haviaras 

 



 *Translation of the original text.*

 It was 33 years ago, in my first workshop on the art of prose at Harvard University, when I devised the exercise for a "bold love scene that doesn't stray into porn." The occasion was my students' embarrassment about language, analogy, and general meter in contentious descriptions or dialogue.

 What is erotic literature? Is it different from pornography, and in what way? In works of the former, descriptions of dalliances are part of a broader, aesthetic understanding of the term and usually differ from pornography, which seeks carnal stimulation in the reader. And yet, things are not so simple. Though rare, there exist works of pornography that, touched by the caress of time, have managed to claim not only intellectual and material rights but also to reap laurels. *Justine* by Marquis de Sade and *The Great Oriental* by Andreas Embirikos are two such examples.

 So, how can the apprentice magician not feel embarrassed? The Nobel Avenue is also a minefield of moral-religious, scandalously libertarian, and not infrequently, hilarious triggers. At the Spring 2016 workshop at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Nafplio, "a daring erotic scene that doesn't stray into porn" was given as a theme for those interested in trying their hand at it.

 The texts that follow in this publication are written by the first twelve authors I have selected: all twelve are young women, and all twelve are university-educated. It just so happened that. Someone else at another institution would have done a sociological study. Not that the 12 texts here don't lend themselves to all kinds of study, starting with patterns of the collective unconscious and subconscious, but especially of conscious thought and whatever else can be seen as collective in members of the same generation or gender. But what interests the members of a prose art workshop is primarily whether the subject matter includes the means by which it wants to express itself. That is, which technique and its infinite abilities to manage language and its own abilities to express its subject matter, combining knowledge, imagination, and emotion.

 The workshops on the art of prose at CHS Greece encourage talent to dare the difficult and offer extensive familiarity with aspects and tools of the art –with mini-talks by the coordinator, discussions, and creative feedback. The writings of the twelve Spring 2016 workshop members before you are of interest beyond their subject matter and are available for your reading pleasure.

 Stratis Haviaras  
September 2017