On the occasion of the birth anniversary
Universal voice against totalitarianism - Ismail Kadare
"Like any great writer, Aeschylus was conscientious that, as opposed to an official—middle or high—representing the state, he was a prince, and not only of art, but of his entire nation. As such, he stood higher than any statesman, and that the fate of Greece rested on his shoulders more than perhaps the entire machinery of the Greek state."
Ismail Kadare
ISMAIL KADARE (1936- ) – Genius writer, known worldwide, translated into 45 languages of the world. He was born in Gjirokastra. He studied language and literature at the University of Tirana. Before 1960, he also studied literature at the Gorky Institute in Moscow. Married to the writer Elena Kadare (1943- ), the first woman in Albania to publish a complete novel - "A difficult birth", Tirana, 1970. They have two daughters - Gresa and Besiana. At the end of 1990, together with his family, he left Albania and settled in Paris. He never broke ties with his homeland. He is one of the most prominent European writers and intellectuals of the XNUMXth century.
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Kadareja was neither a court writer, nor an exponent of the regime, nor a conformist. On the contrary, he has been silent dissident. Everywhere in his works, he attacks the dictatorial regime in form of allegories. His work must be evaluated from a purely literary point of view, therefore with aesthetic criteria. The power of socialist realism you were inadequate in front of a talent like Kadare. Kadare created one work of universal character, but whose roots are deep in Albanian soil. His works are a reflection of the vicissitudes of Albanian political life. Ai is the universal voice against totalitarianism.
For her literary creativity, Kadareja has been awarded with prestigious international literary prizes and decorations in many countries of the world: in France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Austria, Israel, the USA, etc. It has been highly rated and decorated in Kosovo as well.
The most prestigious awards and titles with which Kadareja has been decorated:
- Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca, France 1992;
- In 1996, Kadareja was declared a member for life Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France;
- The President of Albania decorated him with the Order "Honour of the Nation";
- The price Boccacio, Italy 1997;
- Herder Prize, Austria 1998;
- Ovid Prize, Romania 2003;
- Man Brooker International Prize, Great Britain, 2005; the German Nobel laureate was also a candidate for this award Günter Gras (Gunter Wilhelm Grass, 1827-2015), the famous Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Marquez, 1927-2014), the Japanese Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe (1935-) awarded the Nobel Prize in 1994.
-The price Prince of Asturias Awards for the arts, Spain 2009; there were 31 candidates from 25 countries of the world;
- The price Lerici Pea, Italy 2010;
-- The price of Jerusalem which in the world literary circles is known as the forerunner of the Nobel for literature, Israel, 2015;
- In 2017, he was awarded the prestigious title Commander of the Legion of Honor, a title that ranks Kadare among the 250 most prominent personalities of the world;
- The price "nominate" in the city of Udino, Italy, 2018;
- International prize for literature Neustadt, known as the American Nobel, Oklahoma, USA, October 16, 2019;
- On 31.12.2019 the President of France Emanyel Macron gives him the title Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor;
- The price Little Kyongui, South Korea, 2019 (among 350 members); etc.
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Works - He wrote poems, stories, essays and novels. He also wrote essays, literary studies, criticism, travel impressions. He is also the author of translations. In 1961, together with Window Agolli (1931-2017) and with Fatos Arabi (1930-) brought innovation to Albanian poetry: F. Arapi with the summary Poetic path, Tirana 1962, D. Agolli with the poetic summary My steps on the asphalt, Tirana 1961 and Kadareja with the summary My century, Tirana 1961. All three achieved goals aesthetic, different from previous poets.
Kadare's poetic volumes: Boyish Inspirations (1954), Dreams (1957), Industrial Dream (1960), My Century (1961), epic-lyrical poems Armored Poem (1962), Why Think These Mountains (1964), Eagles Fly Up (1966), Albania and the Three Romans; volumes Sunny Motives (1968), Time (1976). In a summary titled Without form is the sky Kadare's 100 poems and poems are included.
In most of his poems, he used the free verse. In poetry intimate, the poet talks to his girlfriend who is far away from him.
The myth of the past prevails in Kadare's poetry. The poet evokes the former glory. His poetry is almost always optimistic, especially the theme of the centuries-old endurance of the Albanian people in its long path. His poetry it deifies the national history, the epic resistance of the Albanians, the land of the ancestors, the Albanian language. Hymns endurance in great weather - in the era of Gjergj Kastriot. Hymns the period of European humanism. In poetry Ballad of Exhumation talks about the fate of Albanians after the death of Gjergj Kastrioti.
Albanians, a people constantly in decline.
PROSE
Romans The general of the dead army, Tirana 1963 talks about a general from a foreign country, accompanied by a priest, who comes to Albania, to its battlefields, to collect the remains of the soldiers killed. These soldiers had come to Albania to conquer it and subjugate it, but they had died there.
In 1965, the short novel was published in Nëntori magazine monster. The work fell victim to Stalinist censorship. The book was reprinted after a quarter of a century in Prizren 1990 and Tirana 1991. The monster in question was nothing but the Trojan horse before the gates of Ilion, but here – a monster in the refraction of time. For official criticism, the novel could have political allusions.
The years 1966-1969 are years of the "Cultural Revolution". acts Drum skin (1967) was published in the magazine "Nëntori", to be published as a separate book with the title wedding. novel wedding, Tirana 1968, with limited artistic value, deals with the topic of female emancipation.
In the 70s, Kadareja returns historical prose.
Romans castle, Tirana 1970 is a work of the historical endurance of the Albanians, memorial of national heroism. Kadareja turns his eyes to the Albanian Middle Ages. We have the siege of an Albanian castle by a Turkish army of 70.000 people. The event takes place in the century. XV, in the era of Gjergj Kastriot. The author reflects the siege by the Turks of a medieval Albanian castle, which symbolizes Albania in the campaigns of the Ottoman Empire to subjugate it. Albania is seen through the eyes of a foreigner - the Turkish Pasha. The offense is directed against foreign invaders. We have the endurance of the XNUMXth century trees. The castle symbolizes resistance, encirclement or containment (isolation). This novel reminds you of the novel Il deserto dei Tatari, Milan 1940 (Desert of the Tatars) of the Italian novelist, storyteller and playwright Dino Buxati (Dino Buzzati, previous surname Buzzati-Traverso, 1906-1972).
The work was published in 1967 South city. later, Southern city served as the basis for the birth of the novel Chronicle in stone, Tirana 1971 with 18 chapters and an epilogue. It talks about Gjirokastra during the Second World War.
In 1975, the novel was published in Tirana November of a capital city. This is about the war of the partisans against the German occupation in Tirana in 1944.
Romans The winter of great loneliness, Tirana 1973, talks about the breakdown of relations with the Soviet Union. It is a work of historical and political proportions. it's a psychological analysis of the state of society during the totalitarian period. After a review by the author, in 1977 it came out in Tirana with the title The big winter.
The winter of great loneliness it was supposed to be the second book of triptych "Fight Time", a contemporary saga about Albania's three feuds: with Yugoslavia, then with the Soviet Union, and most recently with Chinese Maoism. first book, the quarrel with the Yugoslavs, was never written. The concluding part of the diptych Quarrel time, ie the third book Concert at the end of winter, written in 1980-1981, managed to see the light of publication only after seven years. Official criticism described the novel as an anti-socialist work that lampooned Albanian and world communism. The novel was published in 1988, shortly before the fall of communism.
The first novel Ad-free city it was written in Moscow, in the fall of 1959, when the author was 23 years old.
Romans Twilight of the Steppe Gods (1978) is a contemporary work with autobiographical elements, such as Chronicle in stone. The author talks about his student life as a student at the Gorky Institute of World Literature in Moscow, shortly after the breakdown of relations between Tirana and Moscow. We have a love story of Kadare with a Russian girl. We also have a chapter for the writer dissident Boris pasternak (1890-1960), author of the novel Doctor Zhivago (1958)In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the "Nobel" prize in the West, but after a fierce campaign against him in the USSR, he refused to accept it.
Romans Rain drums denounces insulation voluntarily chosen. It was the initial title of the novel ROUND-UP.It was first published in 1970.
In the novel Bridge with three arches, Tirana 1978 the author returns to the beginning mythical of the history of Albania. Gives life to an Albanian and Balkan legend - immurement. The legend of burying a human being in the foundations of a bridge or a castle is widespread in Albanian oral literature. P. sh. the legend of the castle of Rozafa. The author gives us an Albania with princes, counts, dukes, bishops, learned travelers, educated prelates. The Albanian ballad is the only one in the Balkans that talks about immurement in the castle.
Novela Party committee (1977) is another Balkan story. We are in 1830th century Albania, stuck in the grip of the Ottoman Empire. In 500, Mehmed Reshid Pasha came to Manastir to announce an amnesty for the rebelling tribes. During the celebration of this act, his troops massacred XNUMX heads with their families, thus eliminating all the heads of southern Albania.
romanet Twilight of the Steppe Gods and The niche of shame, as well as novels Party committee were written in the years 1972-1976.
Romans The great paschals (1978) talks about the pashal of Ali saw Tepelena (1741-1822), the Lion of Ioannina. He created his own autonomous state in southern Albania and maintained diplomatic relations with Napoleon and the West. His rebellion was put down by the High Gate. In January 1822, Ali Pasha was captured and executed by cutting off his head on an island in the lake of Ioannina where he was stranded. The head was taken to Istanbul by the royal courier Tunxh Hatai to be exhibited to the public in the niche of shame. In some foreign language editions, the novel bears the title The niche of shame.
Many of Kadare's short stories and novels have been published in three collections: The former emblem, Tirana 1977, Moderation, Tirana 1980 and Writing time, Tirana 1986. The last two volumes have been profound unorthodox.
The generation of the Hankonats (1977) is a short novel with 78 episodes. The author traces the zeal, prejudices, petty conflicts and rivalries, achievements and failures of this family, following it from generation to generation over a period of two centuries. It is a long story, the saga of an old family from Gjirokastra, written in a chronic form, a tradition in Albanian culture that begins with "Environment of Shkodra" of the historian Marin Barleti (c. 1450-1512) written in Latin.
In the novel Who brought Doruntina? (1979) the author dives into legendary past of Albania, in one legend. Before us we have the story of Constantine and his sister Doruntina. An old woman has nine sons and one daughter. Eight of his sons are dead. The mother is reluctant to marry off her daughter. Meanwhile, Constantine promises that he will bring his daughter whenever the mother wants. Constantine dies. The mother is burning with longing for her daughter. Curse the dead son who did not keep his word, besa. Though dead, to keep his word, besa, Constantine is taken from the grave and leaves for distant Bohemia to his sister. On a foggy October night, Doruntina arrives at her mother's. But she was already in agony. Suddenly, the mother and daughter Doruntina die. Constantine returns to stir the spirit of the living. Who really was the person who brought Doruntina?! Captain Stresi, a lowly official in medieval Albania, deals with the case. This is reminiscent of the novel of the Italian theorist, critic and novelist Umberto Eco (1932-2016) Il nome della rosa (The name of the rose, 1980).
Romans Broken April (1978) was published in vol Moderation. It is similar to Who brought Doruntina? The subject begins with a murder. The event takes place in the 1930s. Gjorg Berisha has done what his father asked - to restore honor to the country by killing the murderer of his brother from the Kryekyqe tribe. We are dealing with feud provided for by Albanian customary law - the Canon of Lek Dukagjini. Blood feud had wiped whole families off the face of the earth. George followed the canon, becoming one himself victim next. They killed him in the prime of life, in the middle of April, in the month of spring, the month of life. Broken Aprilit was screened three times in different cinematographic versions. The last one, titled "Beyond the sun",was made under the direction of the Brazilian director Walter Sales (Walter Moreira Salles Jr., 1956- ).
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note: The monumental codification and publication of Albanian customary law, The canon of Lekë Dukagjin, the researcher of Albanian culture, who left his mark in the field of archaeology, did Deputy Konstatin Gjeçov-Kryeziu (1874-1929). Gjeçovi was the first Albanian folklorist who collected oral literature in a more systematic and scientific way. In certain settlements of northern Albania, including Laçi at the foot of the Kurbin mountains, Gomsiqen in the east of Shkodra, Thethi, in the northern corner and Rubik in the district of Mirdita - among mountain tribes - Gjeçov collected material for oral literature, tribal canon, archaeological material , as well as objects of popular culture. The canon of Lekë Dukagjin was published in Shkodër, in 1933, ie. after the death of Gjeçov.
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Romans The clerk of the palace of dreams, Tirana 1981 was also published as The palace of dreams. It is considered as masterpiece of Kadare. Here we have the world of Franz Kafka (1883-1924) and the novel "1984"of George Orwell (George Orwell, 1903-1950). The character of the novel is Mark Alemi. This is assigned by work in Tabir Saraj located in Istanbul. This state office of the Ottoman Empire deals with the study of dreams. Mark Alem's task is interpret dreamsto enable the Ottoman authorities to nip in the bud any rebellion against the Empire. Through this work, the author also unmasks totalitarian regimes.
Romans The krushki are frozenwas published in 1986 in Writing time. It talks about the events and the Albanian uprising in Kosovo in March and April of 1981. The request of the Albanians for the status of a republic within the Yugoslav Federation was met with the imposition of a curfew by Belgrade. According to legend, the clock of Albanian mythology freezes the krushks before they arrive, in order to prevent what should not happen. There are two days in the life of Teuta Shkreli, a surgeon in a Pristina hospital during the aforementioned bloody events. Serbs dream of the time of Aleksandër Ranković (1909-1983), who is the personification of the Serbian genocide against the Albanians.
Even the novel Wicked year was published in the book Writing time. They talk about the year 1914, a messy and decisive year in the struggle of the newborn Albanian state to stay alive. It is the year when Hale-Bop's comet passed over the sky of the Balkans. Chaos reigned in Albania and not the German prince William Wid (1876-1945). Turhan Pasha's government controlled only a part of the country's territory. There was a clash of interests among the Albanians. Likewise among the French, British and Dutch. Neighboring countries, meanwhile, had expansionist aspirations. Greek, Serbian and Montenegrin forces had invaded the country. After six months, the prince leaves Albania.
story The bringer of disaster - Islam nox (1984) - The Sultan had ordered that all the women of the Ottoman Empire should be covered with veils. Seamstresses from ten Turkish cities prepared half a million pieces for stubborn European sisters. The coins were loaded on the mules of Haxhi Milet and from Istanbul they took the road to Albania.
Romans Concert at the end of winter, Tirana 1988 has many parallels with the novel The big winter. We have a 700-page chronicle. It is a grotesque look at Albania's secession from post-Maoist China in 1978. The characters Besnik Struga, Skënder Bermema and Marku are now 17 years older than when Albania broke with the Soviets. As in other works, in this novel the author uses extensively symbols.
In the novel The H file two fictional Irish-American researchers, Max Roth and Vili Norton, set out for the mountains of pre-war northern Albania, tape recorder in hand, in search of the homeland of the epic. Both folklorists aim to investigate the existence of a possible connection between Homeric poetry and heroic songs sung with lute by the Albanian highlanders. The sub-prefect of the area sews the secret agent Dulle Baxhanë behind them to observe them. The local population suspects that the foreigners are spies? They raid their headquarters in Hani e Rrashtbualli. They destroy their equipment, with the recorded voice of the villagers. Their mission in Albania comes to an end. The novel in question is one satire The events take place in 1930. The author also gives a side kick to trends isolationist of the post-war authorities.
With literary study Autobiography of the people in verses, Tirana 1971, the prince of the nation – Kadare, wants to find out the roots of legends and folk poetry that they have attracted so much in their prose.
The shortest study On the epic of the Kreshniks (1979) investigates the origin of the main cycle of the Albanian heroic epic known by the name Kreshnik song or cycle i Muji and Halil. For thirty years I will burn the towers, threatens the enemy, the Kreshnik hero of the Albanian epic.
In the monograph Aeschylus, this big loser, Tirana 1990, Kadare talks about the father of ancient Greek tragedy, Aeschylus (about 525-456 BC), who wrote 80 parts. Only seven of them survived.
The arrival of Migjen in Albanian literature, Tirana 1991 is a test for Migjeni (1911-1938) who with the prose sketches and the poetic summary Free verses, Tirana 1936 and 1944, ended it romanticism in Albanian papers. In this monograph Kadareja writes: "There are terrible and devilishly perfect dictatorships where the writing profession is a real curse". In this ordeal, Kadareja also included an extensive treatment "of reactionary authors" silenced by official literary criticism.
Invitation to the studio, Tirana 1990 is Kadare's last publication before leaving for France in the fall of 1990. The book contains 32 poems as well as translations of poems from Greek, Chinese, French, Romanian and Russian. The book also contains reflections on literature and the arts as well as current events. The author also settled some old scores with rival writers.
Two months before the fall of the monist government, with his wife Eelena and two daughters, Kadareja fled Tirana and sought political asylum in France. Kadareja explained the reasons for leaving in the Parisian daily Le Monde.
From one December to another, Paris, February 1991 is a chronicle covering the period from December 1989 to December 1990. The book also has sarcastically. In French, the book came out with the title Printemps albanais, Paris 1991 (Albanian spring).The work is a continuation of the book Invitation to the studio. The first wave of emigration through the German, Italian and French embassies in Tirana in July 1990 caused panic in the red aristocracy. Kadare also published the correspondence with President Ramiz Alia in May 1990.
The weight of the cross, Paris 1991 is Kadare's second work published in exile. It is intended as a continuation of the book Invitation to the studio. Both works were published in a single volume of 558 pages in French. From one December to another, Invitation to the studioand The weight of the cross form a type political-literary trilogy.The weight of the cross reveals the anxiety of Kadare during the years of dictatorial power. it's autobiography of a novelist under the Stalinist regimewho publishes works without being sure of the reaction of demigods of the Political Bureau. In this book, the author talks about his own suffering under the communist regime, but not for the more concrete agony of many other writers and artists. Maybe this was not the purpose of the work.
Romans Pyramid it is an allegoripolitical and historical one. Half was written in Albania and the other half in France. It was published in parts as a newspaper story Democratic renaissance in January 1991. In Paris, the author expanded it into a 17-chapter novel. First, in 1992, it came out in French, translated by Yusuf Vrioni (2016-2001; he is the son of Iljaz bey Vrion). It is a stunning account of the idea and construction of the pyramid of Cheops in ancient Egypt, but also of absolute political power and even human folly.
"Archaeologist of dictatorship, Kadareja unravels the hieroglyphs of horror that tyrants of all colors have branded on the bodies of their victims" - says the literary journalist Andrew Clavel (André Clavel, 1946-2019).
Romans successor (2006) it was written in Paris. Kadareja brings to mind the mystery of December 13, the mysterious death in the bedroom of the successor of the communist dictator. A bullet was found in the heart of the victim's body. Daughter of Agamemnonand successor constitute one diptych.
story Reading Hamlet as well as the two novels "Secret Report" and "Diamond Talk on a December Afternoon"; story Cafe days was published as a separate book in America;
Curse it because of the delicate subject, remained unpublished;
Shadow, Daughter of Agamemnon, Moonlit Night were written in the years 1984-1986 in Tirana;
Romans Spiritus was written in France in 1995-1996. It deals with events that belong to two times: before and after communism;
Romans Cold flowers of March it was written in France in 1998-2000. It is one of the author's rare works, the subject of which is entirely based on the events after the fall of communism in Albania. It is the saddest work of Kadare, almost one requiem. The author openly confronts the Albanian reality, gloomy and pessimistic, for a land that was abandoned GODS. March is nothing but cold. Flowers are also cold.
Novela Three mourning songs for Kosovo was written and published on the eve of the outbreak of war in Kosovo.
in Liberation of Serbia from Kosovo Kadare talks about the division between Albanians and Serbs, about the distortion of history by the Serbs, about the reason why Serbia should have been the first to recognize Kosovo's independence.
The two short novels vulture and Matters of stupidity; vulture It was written in the summer of 1995 in Deauville, Normandy.
Romans actor formerly known by the title "The life, game and death of Lul Mazrek";
Kadareja is passionate about the tragedy and for its two representatives – the father of ancient tragedy Aeschylus (Eleuzia, Attica, 525-/524 – Gela, Sicily, 456/455 BC) and the father of modern tragedy William Shakespeare (William Shakespeare, 1564-1616). Friend, faith and blood feud are the wheels of the mechanism of ancient tragedy.
The last three novels accident written in 2003-2004, it was published in French by the publishing house Fayard; wrong dinner, Tirana 2008 and Obstructed written in 2008-2009;
trials Dante the inevitable, Hamlet the awkward prince and Don Quixote in the Balkans were written and published after the fall of communism.
We saw this mort fall (1999) is a journal about Kosovo; trials Cousin of angels and Art as sin; The legend of legends; Frightened sorcades, an extensive synopsis for other art; two dialogues of Kadare: with the magazine "Hylli i Drita" and The truth that comes out of the cellars with the French publicist and writer Stefan Kurtua (Stéphane Courtois, 1947- ) published in Odile Jacob as an afterword to the French edition of the book Prof. Shaban Sinani; Essays The European identity of Albanians.
Drama Boring season in Olympus it is the only theatrical part of Kadare. The author reconstructs the famous trilogy of Aeschylus, of which, after the loss of the first and third parts, only the middle part remains "Prometheus Bound".
The work of Kadare – the prince of the nation - has always been on the list of candidates for the "Nobel" prize, in the name of Albanian literature.
