Generation of 1930

With the term of Generation of 1930, in its wider sense, we mean all those new writers and poets who matured between 1930 and 1940. It concerns a group of intellectuals that were eager to break with the past or at least to differentiate themselves from it. The Generation of 1930 had a dialogue with other directions and artistic trends of the time and made its entrance to the scene of Greek cultural activity as an avantgarde movement, cultivating the speculation around the concept of Greek identity.

In the framework of this speculation an idiom for some manifestations of other cultural fields developed. It concerns the interest in what was called primitive or popular expression which was sought in the world of "naif" (self-taught, simple) or popular craftsmen such as Makriyannis, Theophilos, the Karagiozis players or popular craftsmen and local workshops.

At the same time, new artistic creations, such as the shadow theatre and rebetika songs, produced addressing mainly popular and marginal groups, were in close conjunction between them and were conversing in the framework of the social sphere from which they originated and to which they were leading to.