The wedding (Ismail Kadare)

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The wedding ( Albanian  Dasma ) is a novel by Ismail Kadare , which was first published in 1967 in the magazine Nëntori with the title Lëkura e daulles ( German  eardrum ). In 1968 the novel was published as a separate book by Naim Frashëri . It was translated into English and dramatized on BBC Radio in 1969 under the title Weddings and Ghosts .

The novel was written in 1967 in an unfavorable climate for free-spirited creativity and writers who had crossed the party line .

Background and content

In the second half of the 1960s, Albania saw its own version of the Chinese cultural revolution in which Albanian writers were forced to move to the countryside to "learn about the lives of the people." In 1966, Kadare was sent to the city of Berat to live “close to the people”.

Of Kadare's earlier three novels, the first, The Unpublished City, went unpublished, the second, The General of the Dead Army , was criticized for not addressing the issue of building socialism , and the third, The Monster , was banned. Under the pressure of the new political-ideological line, writers and intellectuals who violated the party line were at great risk. In view of the unfavorable climate for free creativity and the pressure to write something about the "joyful present", Kadare considered during his time in a textile mill in Berat whether to give up writing altogether or to make concessions and write under the pressure of dogma. During this time the novel appeared, which had as its core the unpublished story Strange Wedding , which Kadare had written a few years earlier. But there should be almost nothing left of this core.

The novel contains descriptions of the “new Albania”; one encounters workers, construction sites, rehabilitation centers. There are current issues such as the emancipation of women, the fight against arranged marriages and the fight against religion . The novel has a festive atmosphere, unusual for Kadare's work. However, numerous grotesque situations and comical dialogues occur, which has led some scholars to interpret it as a mockery of communist topicality. Kadare also criticizes the bureaucracy.

Certain authors regard the work as a novel of real socialism , even as the most extreme real socialist work of Kadare. Others take the opposite view, including Arshi Pipa , a critic of Kadare:

“Dasma nuk është roman i mirë, madje as nuk është roman, por thjesht një shkërbim romani [...]; romani ishte e kundërta e plotë e asaj që mburrte Historia e letërsisë shqiptare të realizmit socialist. [… The wedding] është manifesti shqiptar i anti-realizmit socialist. "

“The wedding is neither a good novel, nor a novel at all, but an imitation of a novel [...]. The novel was the exact opposite of what Albanian literary history boasted of socialist realism. [... The wedding] is the Albanian manifesto of anti-real socialism. "

- Arshi Pipa : ƘÊNƧ - revistë e përvitshme kritike: In memoriam Arshi Pipa

Translations

Though a work overlooked by the author, it was translated to some western countries by left-wing editors before the General of the Dead Army . For propaganda purposes it was translated into English by Ali Cungu, Tirana 1968, New York 1972; Norwegian, Oslo 1976; Swedish, Stockholm 1976; Dutch, Rotterdam 1979 and Spanish 1985.

In German is the wedding has not been published. The translators Gerhard Schallenkamp and Ernst Ulbrich, who partly used the English version, wrote the German text in 1977 as a manuscript .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Éric Faye : Kadare e përçmoi 'Dasmën', se u pëlqye nga kritika e kohës. In: Panorama. January 21, 2016, accessed March 21, 2020 (Albanian).
  2. ^ A b Robert Elsie : Histori e letërsisë shqiptare . Dukagjini, Tirana / Peja 1997, p. 267 ( elsie.de [PDF; accessed on March 21, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Ag Apolloni: Paradigm e Proteut . OM, Prishtina 2012, pp. 22-23.
  4. ↑ Muhamet Hamiti: Pamje e letërsisë shqipe në studimet e Arshi Pipës . In: Lisandri Kola, Aristea Kola, Aristea Kola (eds.): KÊNƧ - revistë e përvitshme kritike . I (in memoriam Arshi Pipa), July 2017, ISSN  2521-7348 , p. 153 ( kens.al [PDF; accessed on March 21, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Dhurata Shehri: Arshi Pipa lexon letërsinë bashkëkohore . In: Lisandri Kola, Aristea Kola, Aristea Kola (eds.): KÊNƧ - revistë e përvitshme kritike . I (in memoriam Arshi Pipa), July 2017, ISSN  2521-7348 , p. 82 ( kens.al [PDF; accessed on March 21, 2020] Pipa's quotations are from Contemporary Albanian Literature (New York 1991, p. 54)).
  6. ↑ Muhamet Hamiti: Pamje e letërsisë shqipe në studimet e Arshi Pipës . In: Lisandri Kola, Aristea Kola, Aristea Kola (eds.): KÊNƧ - revistë e përvitshme kritike . I (in memoriam Arshi Pipa), July 2017, ISSN  2521-7348 , p. 153 ( kens.al [PDF; accessed on March 21, 2020] Pipa's quotations are from Contemporary Albanian Literature (New York 1991, p. 54)).
  7. ↑ The wedding / Ismail Kadare. In: Catalog of the German National Library. Retrieved March 21, 2020 .
  8. ↑ The wedding / Ismail Kadare. In: State and University Library Bremen (catalog). Retrieved March 21, 2020 .