Ismail Kadare

Author

• Born: January 28, 1936
• Place of Birth: Gjirokastër, Albania
• Died: July 1, 2024
• Place of Death: Tirana, Albania

Albanian writer Ismail Kadare was a major literary figure of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. His work was heavily influenced by his early life under Albania's oppressive communist regime, and earned much critical praise for its exploration of totalitarianism and the human condition.

Background

Ismail Kadare was born in Gjirokaster, Albania, on January 28, 1936, the son of a civil servant. At this time, Albania was a new country, having declared independence from Turkey in 1912. However, the Albanians lacked a strong national defense and were overtaken by the Italians and later by Nazi Germany. At the end of World War II, a communist resistance group, formed to oppose the occupation, took power. Albania remained an isolated communist dictatorship until the fall of Communism in the early 1990s.

Kadare earned his teaching degree from Tirana University in 1956, afterward moving to Moscow to study literature, but relations between Albania and the Soviet Union began to sour due to the Soviet position on Yugoslavia. Albania aligned with Communist China instead of the Soviet Union, and Kadare had to return home in 1961.

Literary Career

Already a published poet, Kadare's career as a novelist took off in the 1960s. Unlike most Albanian novels, his books were not written in the style of Socialist Realism, which glorified Marxist ideology and emphasized the value of work. Instead, his writing focused more on Albanian culture and traditions. The authoritarian government sanctioned his work because it fostered national pride.

Kadare's first novel, Gjenerali i ushtrisë së vdekur (1963; The General of the Dead Army, 1971), became his professional breakthrough. The main character is a foreign general who is sent to Albania after the war to recover the bodies of his fallen soldiers. As a result of his task, he is forced to reexamine his feelings about war and eventually drifts into insanity. The work quickly brought Kadare attention and acclaim in Europe and the United States, which in turn helped make him one of the highest-profile intellectuals in Albania as well.

Another of Kadare's most critically acclaimed works was Kronikë në gurë (1971; Chronicle in Stone, 1987), set in Kadare’s hometown during World War II. The novel is semiautobiographical but written in what has been described as a magical realist style. The book examines how years of war and a series of invading cultures impacted Albania’s culture and national identity.

Kadare’s relationship with the Albanian government deteriorated in 1975 with the publication of “Pashallarët e Kuq,” a poem critical of bureaucracy. His next novel, Ura me tri harqe (1978; The Three-Arched Bridge, 1995), disguised his political and social themes by setting the story in medieval times. He also published some works that apparently portrayed Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha and his government in a positive light, something that Kadare would later claim was necessary to survive in a brutally repressive atmosphere. Throughout the 1980s, however, Kadare’s differences with the regime worsened, finally forcing him to move to France in 1990. The ruling Albanian government fell just months later. Kadare had managed to produce great writing under an oppressive regime and bring worldwide recognition to a country not otherwise known for its literature.

Kadare continued writing as Albania transitioned to democracy and his works continued to receive critical acclaim. He remained interested in exploring themes of Albania's culture, ethnicity, and history as well as his personal background in both fiction and nonfiction. His later novels included Dosja H (1990; The File on H.), Piramida (1995; The Pyramid), Pasardhësi (2003; The Successor), Darka e gabuar (2008; The Fall of the Stone City), E penguara: Rekuiem për Linda B. (2009; A Girl in Exile, 2016), Aksidenti (2010; The Accident), and Kukulla (2015; The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother, 2020).

Kadare died on July 1, 2024, after a heart attack. He was eighty-eight years old.

Impact

As Kadare's popularity among Western audiences increased, his older works also increasingly began to be republished in English and other languages and earn international acclaim. Kadare was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2005 and was nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He also received the Jerusalem Prize from the International Book Fair in 2015 and the 2020 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, among other honors, while the Kadare Prize was established in his name in 2015 to recognize other Albanian writers.

Personal Life

Kadare was married to Elena Kadare, another author. He had two daughters, Besiana and Gresa.

Bibliography

Haljuci, Rusha. “Ismail Kadare, 88, Dies; His Novels Brought Albania’s Plight to the World.” The New York Times, 1 July 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/obituaries/ismail-kadare-dead.html. Accessed 1 July 2024.

“Ismail Kadare.” The Booker Prizes, thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/ismail-kadare. Accessed 1 July 2024.

Kadare, Ismail. “How I Write.” Interview by Noah Charney. The Daily Beast, 31 Jan. 2013, www.thedailybeast.com/ismail-kadare-how-i-write. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.

Kadare, Ismail. “Ismail Kadare, The Art of Fiction No. 153.” Interview by Shusha Guppy. The Paris Review, vol. 147, Summer 1998, www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1105/the-art-of-fiction-no-153-ismail-kadare. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.

Kirsch, Adam. “Mystery of Man: Just Who Is Ismail Kadare?” The New York Sun, 27 June 2005, www.nysun.com/article/arts-mystery-of-man-just-who-is-ismail-kadare. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.

MacQuarie, Robert. “'A Treacherous Climate': Ismail Kadare's Cold Years in Moscow.” New Statesman, 19 Aug. 2014, www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/08/treacherous-climate-ismail-kadare-s-cold-years-moscow/. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.