Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare (Ismail Kadaré in French) (born 1936) is an Albanian writer. He is known for his novels, although he was first noticed for his poetry collections. In the 1960s he focused on short stories until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army. In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France. In 1992, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca; in 2005, he won the inaugural Man Booker International Prize and in 2009 the Prince of Asturias Award of Arts. He has divided his time between Albania and France since 1990. Kadare has been a Nobel Prize in Literature candidate several times. He began writing very young, in the mid 1950s. His works have been published in about thirty languages.

Kadare served as a member of the Albanian parliament during the communist regime from 1970 until 1982.^[4]

Biography

Ismail Kadare was born on 28 January 1936 in Gjirokastër, Albania. He was from a non-religious family.

Kadare was educated at the Faculty of History and Philology at the University of Tirana and later at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. During the communist regime, Kadare supported totalitarianism and the doctrines of socialist realism.

Kadare's novels draw on Balkan history and legends. They are obliquely ironic as a result of trying to withstand political scrutiny. Among his best known books are Chronicle in Stone (1977), Broken April (1978),^[1][2], The Palace of Dreams (1980) and The Concert (1988), considered the best novel of the year 1991 by the French literary magazine Lire.^[5] The Palace of Dreams was a political allegory set in the Ottoman capital; it was banned soon after publication.

In 1990, Kadare claimed political asylum in France, issuing statements in favour of democratisation. At that time, he stated that "dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible. The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship."

Critical opinion is divided as to whether Kadare should be considered to have been a dissident or a conformist during the Communist period.^[1] For his part, Kadare has stated that he had never claimed to be an "Albanian Solzhenitsyn" or a dissident, and that "dissidence was a position no one could occupy [in Hoxha's Albania], even for a few days, without facing the firing squad. On the other hand, my books themselves constitute a very obvious form of resistance."^[6] Referring to a novel in which he portrayed Enver Hoxha in a flattering light, Kadare said the book was "the price he had to pay for his freedom".^[7] He is married to Helena Kadare (nee Gushi) and has two daughters.

Recognition

Kadare's works have been published in over forty countries and translated in over thirty languages. In English, his works have usually appeared as secondary translations from their French editions, often rendered by the scholar David Bellos.^[8]

In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France, where he replaced the philosopher Karl Popper. In 1992, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, in 2005 he received the inaugural Man Booker International Prize. In 2009, Kadare was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature.^[9] He has been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. In the same year he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Science in Social and Institutional Communication University of Palermo in Sicily.

The Independent characterizes him as follows:

He has been compared to Gogol, Kafka and Orwell. But Kadare's is an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil.^[10]

Selected works

The following Kadare novels have been translated into English (in chronological order of first publication):

• The General of the Dead Army (1963), (Albanian: Gjenerali i ushtrisë së vdekur)
• The Monster (1965) (Albanian: Përbindëshi); shortly published in 1965 in the literary Nëntori magazine, the novel was soon censored and never appeared on the libraries. It was republished only 30 years later.^[11]
• The Wedding (1968), (Albanian: Dasma)
• The Castle or The Siege (1970), (Albanian: Kështjella)
• Chronicle in Stone (1971), (Albanian: Kronikë në gur)
• The Great Winter (1977) (Albanian: Dimri i madh)
• Broken April (1978), (Albanian: Prilli i thyer)^[1][1][2]
• The Three-Arched Bridge (1978), (Albanian: Ura me tri harqe)
• On the Lay of the Knights (1979)
• Doruntine (1980), (Albanian: Kush e solli Doruntinën)
• The Autobiography of the People in Verses (1980), (Albanian: Autobiografia e popullit në vargje)
• The Palace of Dreams (1981), (Albanian: Nëpunësi i pallatit të ëndrrave)
• The Concert (1988), (Albanian: Koncert në fund të dimrit)
• The File on H (1990) (Albanian: Dosja H: roman)
• Albanian Spring (1991) (Albanian: Nga një dhjetor në tjetrin)
• The Pyramid,^[3] or La Pyramide (1992), (Albanian: Piramida)
• Three Elegies for Kosovo (1998), (Albanian: Tri këngë zie për Kosovën)
• Spring Flowers, Spring Frost (2000), (Albanian: Lulet e ftohta të marsit)
• The Successor (2003), (Albanian: Pasardhësi)
• Agamemnon's Daughter (2003), (Albanian: Vajza e Agamemnonit)
• The Accident (2010), (Albanian: Aksidenti)
• Mosmarrëveshja: Mbi raportet e Shqipërisë me vetveten. (2010)
• The Ghost Rider (2011); an updated translation of Doruntine. It has been revised to include previously omitted text.

Works published in French

The complete works (except for the essays) of Ismail Kadare were published by Fayard, simultaneously in French and Albanian, between 1993 and 2004.^[12] Omitted from the list are the poetry and the short stories.

The dates of publication given here are those of the first publication in Albanian, unless stated otherwise. Kadare has often reworked his writings, and the newer editions may include significant differences from the original text.

• Le Général de l'armée morte (1963), adapted for the cinema in 1983 with Marcello Mastroianni
• La Peau de tambour (1967, under the Albanian title La noce)
• Chronique de la ville de pierre (1970)
• Les Tambours de la pluie (1970, under the Albanian title La citadelle)
• L'Hiver de la grande solitude (1973, also published as Le Grand Hiver), deals with the break with the Soviet Union in 1960
• Novembre d'une capitale (1975)
• Le Palais des rêves (1981)
• Le Crépuscule des dieux de la steppe (1978)
• La Commission des fêtes (1978)
• Le Pont aux trois arches (1978)
• La Niche de la honte (1978)
• Avril brisé (1980)
• Qui a ramené Doruntine? (1980)
• Clair de lune (1985)
• L'Année noire (1985)
• Le cortège de la noce s'est figé dans la glace (1985), set against the background of the repression of the demonstrations in 1981 in Kosovo
• Eschyle ou le grand perdant (1985, essay)
• Concert en fin de saison (1988, also published as the Le concert), edited in 1978-1981 but censored for seven years, deals with Sino-Albanian relations in the 1970s
• Le Dossier H. (1989)
• Le Monstre (1990), a short version had already appeared in 1965, but was soon censored
• Le Firman aveugle (1991), edited in 1984
• Invitation à l'atelier de l'écrivain (1991, essay)
• La Pyramide (1992)
• La Grande Muraille (1993)
• L'Ombre (1994), edited in 1984-86, appeared in French before being published in Albanian
• L'Aigle (1995)
• Spiritus (1996)
• Le Printemps Albanais (1997)
• Trois temps (1997)
• L'albanie, Visage des Balkans (1998)
• Trois chants funèbres pour le Kosovo (1998)
• La Ville sans enseignes (1998), written much earlier and edited in Moscow in 1959
• Mauvaise saison sur l'Olympe (1998, drama)
• L'Envol du migrateur (1999), edited in 1986
• Froides fleurs d'avril (2000)
• Il a fallu ce deuil pour se retrouver (2000), diary of the war of Kosovo
• Le Chevalier au faucon (2001)
• Histoire de l'Union des Écrivains albanais telle que reflétée dans le miroir d'une femme (2001)
• La Fille d'Agamemnon (2003), edited in 1985
• Le Successeur (2003)
• Vie, jeu et mort de Lul Mazrek (2003)
• Dante l'incontournable (2006)
• Hamlet, le prince impossible (2007)
• L'Accident (2008)
• Le Dîner de trop (2009)

Quotations

« Les nuages nagent comme des enveloppes géantes, Comme des lettres, que s’enverraient les saisons. » in Poème d’automne.

« La vraie littérature a son propre calendrier, sa propre liberté qui n'a rien à voir avec la liberté extérieure. » Extract from an interview in 'Libération - 25 Octobre 1999

See also

• Albanian literature
• Albanian culture

References

Further reading

Kadare, Helena. Kohë e pamjaftueshme, Tirana: Onufri, 2011. ISBN 978-99956-87-51-9 (Also available in French)

External links

• Biography, from 'Books and Writers', by Petri Liukkonen