BALKAN IMAGES IN THE FICTION OF ISMAIL KADARE

Abstract

In 2001, the aftermath of the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, Ismail Kadare wrote in anarticle titled "The Balkans: Truth and Untruths":The distorted history of the Balkan peoples is one of the veils that prevents knowledge of these peoples, and ... fuels the Balkan chaos. This fog of history has been the best ally of the chauvinistic castes in the region, of fierce nationalism and monstrous doctrines (6)According to Kadare, both the Ottoman and the Balkan people have distorted selfperceptions:the Ottomans think they humanized and civilized the Balkan, whereas the Balkan people believe they were martyrs and heroes (7). The heroic Balkan self image emerged from an embarrassment about cooperation with the Ottomans;Serbia has claimed for itself an exaggerated importance and belittled an allegedly small Albania, which actually supplied Ottoman Grand Viziers.As in the article, such Balkan relations and misconceptions are associated in Kadare's fiction, with fog and veiling. Fog and mist often appear as features of the Albanian and Balkan landscape, whereas in a figurative sense, they prevent people from recognizing who and where they are. I want to show that the blurring of sight and insight is at the very heart of Kadare's fiction. In the first part of my talks I discuss portrayals of the relationship between Albanians, Slavs, and the Ottomans;in the second, I focus on the ambiguous power that ancient bards and the famous Albanian Kanun still wield in Kadare's fiction.