Dritëro Agolli
Encyclopedia
Dritëro Agolli is an Albanian
poet, writer, politician, and former president of the defunct Albanian League of Writers and Artists
. He studied in Leningrad
in the Soviet Union
and wrote primarily poetry
, but also short stories, essays, plays, and novels. He was head of the Albanian League of Writers and Artists
from the purge of Fadil Paçrami
and Todi Lubonja at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Albanian Party of Labour
from 1973 until 1992.
near Korça
and finished high school in Gjirokastra in 1952. He later continued his studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Leningrad and took up journalism upon his return to Albania, working for the daily newspaper Zëri i Popullit
(The People’s Voice) for fifteen years. Agolli was also a deputy in the Albanian Parliament.
Agolli’s second novel, The man with the cannon translated into English in 1983, takes up the partisan theme from a different angle and with a somewhat more subtle approach.
After these two novels of partisan heroism, Agolli produced also some interesting work, his satirical Splendour and fall of comrade Zylo , which has proved to be his claim to fame. Comrade Zylo is the epitome of the well-meaning but incompetent apparatchik
, a director of an obscure government cultural affairs department. His pathetic vanity, his quixotic fervour, his grotesque public behaviour, in short his splendour and fall, are all recorded in ironic detail by his hard-working and more astute subordinate and friend Demkë who serves as a neutral observer. Comrade Zylo is a universal figure, a character to be found in any society or age, and critics have been quick to draw parallels ranging from Daniel Defoe
and Nikolay Gogol’s Revizor to Franz Kafka
and Milan Kundera
's Zert. But it is doubtless the Eastern European reader who will best appreciate all the subtleties of the novel. Splendour and fall of comrade Zylo first appeared in 1972 in the Tirana satirical journal Hosteni (The goad) and was published the following year in a monograph form.
All in all, Agolli’s strength in prose lies in the short story rather than in the novel. Sixteen of his short stories were published in English in the volume: Short stories, Tirana 1985.
One early collection of tales, the 213-page The noise of winds of the past , had the distinction of being banned and ‘turned into cardboard.’ The author was accused of Soviet revisionism at a time when the party had called for more Maoist revolutionary concepts in literature and greater devotion to the working masses.
letters.
He has been exceptionally productive in recent years, with numerous well-received verse collections: The time beggar , The spirit of our forefathers , The strange man approaches , Ballad for my father and myself , Midnight notebook , and The distant bell . Among recent volumes of prose are: the short story collection Insane people ; The naked horseman , and The devil’s box .
Over the years, Agolli has advanced and managed to remain true to himself and to his readers despite the vicissitudes of public life. In the volume The belated pilgrim , his first book ever written without an eye to the invisible censor, we encounter a new chapter: not only in the life of the poet, but also in the struggle of his people for survival. Agolli confesses in a postscript: "For poets of my generation, an age of disappointments and dilemmas has dawned, an age in which to re-evaluate what we produced, without forgetting or denying those fair and humane values we brought forth. But the fortress of ideas and ideals which we believed in, some of us completely, others partially, has all but collapsed, and in its walls burn the fires of our dreams. Those fires have awakened a different type of verse..."
. He also founded his own Dritëro Publishing Company by means of which he has been able to publish many new volumes of prose and poetry, and make a major impact on literary and intellectual life in the country.
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
poet, writer, politician, and former president of the defunct Albanian League of Writers and Artists
Albanian League of Writers and Artists
The Albanian League of Writers and Artists is an organization of creators, located in Tirana, Albania, which includes writers, composers, and artists and critics of the literary and artistic values.- History :...
. He studied in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and wrote primarily poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, but also short stories, essays, plays, and novels. He was head of the Albanian League of Writers and Artists
Albanian League of Writers and Artists
The Albanian League of Writers and Artists is an organization of creators, located in Tirana, Albania, which includes writers, composers, and artists and critics of the literary and artistic values.- History :...
from the purge of Fadil Paçrami
Fadil Paçrami
Fadil Paçrami was an Albanian politician. writer and playwright. He served as Chairman of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania from 20 November, 1970 to 25 September, 1973.-Reference:...
and Todi Lubonja at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Albanian Party of Labour
Albanian Party of Labour
The Party of Labour of Albania was the sole legal political party in Albania during communist rule...
from 1973 until 1992.
Biography
Agolli was born to a peasant family in Menkulas in the Devoll DistrictDevoll District
The District of Devoll is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Korçë County and derives its name from the Devoll river flowing through the valley. It has a population of 33,785, and an area of 429 km². It is in the southeastern corner of the country, and its capital is Bilisht...
near Korça
Korča
Korča is a village in the municipality of Hadžići, Bosnia and Herzegovina.-References:...
and finished high school in Gjirokastra in 1952. He later continued his studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Leningrad and took up journalism upon his return to Albania, working for the daily newspaper Zëri i Popullit
Zëri i Popullit
Zëri i Popullit is an Albanian daily newspaper that was originally founded on August 25, 1942 as the official newspaper of Albania and was the news and propaganda organ of the Party of Labour. After the Socialist People's Republic of Albania was disbanded in 1992, the paper continued to get...
(The People’s Voice) for fifteen years. Agolli was also a deputy in the Albanian Parliament.
Beginnings as a poet
Agolli first attained success as a poet. His early verse collections I went out on the street , My steps on the pavement , and Mountain paths and sidewalks , introduced him to the reading public as a sincere and gifted lyric poet of the soil who already demonstrated masterful verse technique. An attachment to his roots came to form the basis of his poetic credo.Prose attempts
As a prose writer, Agolli first made a name for himself with the novel Commissar Memo , translated in English as The bronze bust, Tirana 1975 originally conceived as a short story.Agolli’s second novel, The man with the cannon translated into English in 1983, takes up the partisan theme from a different angle and with a somewhat more subtle approach.
After these two novels of partisan heroism, Agolli produced also some interesting work, his satirical Splendour and fall of comrade Zylo , which has proved to be his claim to fame. Comrade Zylo is the epitome of the well-meaning but incompetent apparatchik
Apparatchik
Apparatchik is a Russian colloquial term for a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party or government; i.e., an agent of the governmental or party "apparat" that held any position of bureaucratic or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management...
, a director of an obscure government cultural affairs department. His pathetic vanity, his quixotic fervour, his grotesque public behaviour, in short his splendour and fall, are all recorded in ironic detail by his hard-working and more astute subordinate and friend Demkë who serves as a neutral observer. Comrade Zylo is a universal figure, a character to be found in any society or age, and critics have been quick to draw parallels ranging from Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
and Nikolay Gogol’s Revizor to Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
and Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...
's Zert. But it is doubtless the Eastern European reader who will best appreciate all the subtleties of the novel. Splendour and fall of comrade Zylo first appeared in 1972 in the Tirana satirical journal Hosteni (The goad) and was published the following year in a monograph form.
All in all, Agolli’s strength in prose lies in the short story rather than in the novel. Sixteen of his short stories were published in English in the volume: Short stories, Tirana 1985.
One early collection of tales, the 213-page The noise of winds of the past , had the distinction of being banned and ‘turned into cardboard.’ The author was accused of Soviet revisionism at a time when the party had called for more Maoist revolutionary concepts in literature and greater devotion to the working masses.
Prolific through the 1990s
Dritëro Agolli has been a prolific writer throughout the 1990s, a rare voice of humanity and sincerity in AlbanianAlbanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
letters.
He has been exceptionally productive in recent years, with numerous well-received verse collections: The time beggar , The spirit of our forefathers , The strange man approaches , Ballad for my father and myself , Midnight notebook , and The distant bell . Among recent volumes of prose are: the short story collection Insane people ; The naked horseman , and The devil’s box .
Writing style
Agolli delights in earthy rhymes and unusual figures of speech. His fresh, clear and direct verse, coloured with the warm foaming milk of brown cows in the agricultural co-operatives, with ears of ripening corn in the Devoll valley and with the dark furrows of tilled soil, has lost none of the bucolic focus which remained the poet’s strength, and one which he cultivates consciously.Over the years, Agolli has advanced and managed to remain true to himself and to his readers despite the vicissitudes of public life. In the volume The belated pilgrim , his first book ever written without an eye to the invisible censor, we encounter a new chapter: not only in the life of the poet, but also in the struggle of his people for survival. Agolli confesses in a postscript: "For poets of my generation, an age of disappointments and dilemmas has dawned, an age in which to re-evaluate what we produced, without forgetting or denying those fair and humane values we brought forth. But the fortress of ideas and ideals which we believed in, some of us completely, others partially, has all but collapsed, and in its walls burn the fires of our dreams. Those fires have awakened a different type of verse..."
Legacy and Impact on Albanian Literature
Though Agolli was a leading figure in the communist nomenclature, he remained a highly respected pillar of public and literary life after the fall of the dictatorship, and is still one the most widely read authors in Albania. In the early 1990s, he was active for several years as a member of parliament for the Socialist Party of AlbaniaSocialist Party of Albania
The Socialist Party of Albania , is a centre-left, social democraticand socially liberal political party in Albania, it is currently the leading opposition party in Albania. It seats 66 MPs in the 2009 Albanian parliament . It achieved power in 1997 after a political crisis and governmental...
. He also founded his own Dritëro Publishing Company by means of which he has been able to publish many new volumes of prose and poetry, and make a major impact on literary and intellectual life in the country.