The history and the story of Yanis Varoufakis

Abstract

The 2010s were profoundly marked by popular uprisings across the globe, each driven by distinct reasons, forms, meanings, and directions. Among these, the 2015 movement in Greece stands out, where the local population rose against increasingly aggressive austerity measures imposed by successive governments, spanning parties across the political spectrum, from left to right. Despite intense mobilization, it is now understood that the process resulted in the bankers' victory and, as a consequence, the deepening of the Eurozone crisis. Following the popular defeat, numerous debates emerged regarding the causes that led to the failure of the struggle against the political and economic power of major financial corporations. Yanis Varoufakis, an intellectual and political figure directly involved in the process, published Adults in the Room in 2017, a narrative combining personal and historical perspectives on this period. This article offers a literary analysis of Varoufakis’s work, investigating the limitations and possibilities afforded by the novelistic form in and for the representation and understanding of historical and collective phenomena. By exploring the relationship between literature and history, it aims to discuss the heuristic potential of literary narratives—even when based on “real” events, as is the case with Adults in the Room—for understanding complex and multifaceted events.