PROFILE/ He died this morning, who was Ismail Kadare, the luminary of Albanian letters

2024-07-01 09:25:00, Aktualitet CNA

ismail Kadare

Albanian literature, and not only, is in mourning.

In the early hours of Monday, the luminary of Albanian letters, Ismail Kadare, died in his apartment in Tirana. He passed away at the age of 88 from natural causes, leaving behind a rare creativity.

Profile of the luminary of Albanian letters

Kadare was born on January 28, 1936 in Gjirokastër, where he completed his secondary education.

In 1958, he graduated from the Department of Language and Literature at the University of Tirana. Then he went to study in Moscow for two years at the Institute of World Literature "Maxim Gorky" (1958-1960). He gained international recognition when his novel "General of the Dead Army" was published in 1963, when Albania was governed by the communist government of the dictator Enver Hoxha.

Before political pluralism was established in Albania, after the student protests in December 1990, Kadare traveled by plane to France, where he sought political asylum.

He lived in Paris, while in recent years he returned to Tirana. On October 17, 2023, the great Albanian writer was awarded the title of High Officer of the Legion of Honor by the French President, Emmanuel Macron.

He was an academic, a politician, a former deputy of the People's Assembly and one of the greatest contemporary writers.

As a writer, he is notable mainly for prose, but his contribution also extends to dramaturgy, poetry and translations. He started writing when he was still young, first poetry, with which he became known, and then prose, becoming the main Albanian prose writer.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, he was known for poetry and prose. In that period, most of the writers belonged to the post-war generation. Kadare, who belonged to the young generation, defended the new literature and surprisingly Enver Hoxha took the side of the young people here.

The 70s and international success

At the beginning of 1970, the French publishing house "Albin Michel" published the novel "The General of the Dead Army" in French. It had a tremendous impact in France and was translated into almost 20 languages ??within three years. Then he returned to historical topics. He wrote and published the novels "Castle" (1970) and "Chronicle in Stone" (1971), which were published in France one after the other. During these years, he also managed the only magazine in a foreign language of the League of Writers, "Les Lettres albanaises". After his success in France, he was appointed a deputy, and after two years he joined the Labor Party of Albania.

According to some scholars of his work, Kadare tried to write normal literature in an abnormal place.

Known for this departure from socialist realism, his works were translated and well received by critics and readers around the world. He created a work with a universal character, but which has deep roots in the Albanian land.

Kadare is considered by some to be one of the most outstanding European writers and academics of the 20th century, as well as a universal voice against totalitarianism.

His prose is characterized by broad historical-philosophical generalizations, a complex subject and deep thought often expressed through parables, on the basis of association or historical analogies.

Awards and medals:

- Gold Medal of the League of Prizren, Kosovo;
-Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, France, 1992;
-Bocaccio Prize, Italy, 1997; [133]
-Herder Prize, Germany, 1998; [134][135]
-Ovid Prize, Romania, 2003;
- Man Booker International Prize, Britain, 2005;
-Prince of Asturias for Literature, Spain, 2009;
- "Lerici Pea" award, Italy, 2010;
-Jerusalem Award, Israel, 2015;[136]
-Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur (C. LH), France, 2016;
- "Albanian Literature" Award, Kosovo, 2017;
- "Nonino" Award, Italy, 2018; [35]
- Academic career award, from the Academy of Sciences of Albania, 2018; [137]
- Park Kyong-ni Award, South Korea, 2019;
-Neustadt International Prize, USA, 2020;
-Prozart, North Macedonia, 2020.