Art/Proze

For the cultural elevation of the Albanians

Faik Konitza

A lecture excerpt of Prof. Namik Ressuli delivered in 1976 at a Seminar organized by Vatra in NYC on the occasion of the centennial of
Konitza's birth.

To properly appraise Konitza's contribution to the cultural elevation of the Albanians we must consider the subject he dealt with. The secondary and higher education he received in French schools had an fundamental influence in shaping the course of his cultural and literary activity. It provided the gateway for him to open new and broad horizons for Albanians, and to develop his talent as a writer,
He
had already tasted the fresh air of Western ideas early in his life in the Catholic community of Shkodra, where for a short time he attended the Jesuit College, and where he very likely first fell under the pro-Austrian influence. The years spent in the classrooms of Western schools were a very fortunate phase in the Konitza's life. It is to that good fortune, along with his natural talent, that he owed his close acquaintance with the mastery of the art of writing. His education in the West enabled Konitza, who had also attended Turkish schools, to compare to cultures and not to let himself fall under the influence of the Balkan-Oriental mentality.

Indeed, when he reached a mature age, the influence of that mentality on his compatriots became an object of his first and strongest criticism. He was the first Tosk to be raised and educated in the West, to achieve a high level of Western culture, and to adopt the Western way of life and thinking. That distinction separated him ever more from the other Tosks of his time, and gave rise t his clashing with them, because they, try as they may, were unable to detach themselves from that oriental outlook which, even after Albania won its independence, continued to be one of the most unfortunate and harmful inheritances of the past that hindered the progress of the nation. Raised in the democratic-liberal France where the freedom of speech was never inhibited, and where in the prime of his youth the fiercest journalists battles were raging, the rebel and irascible Konitza felt the need to do what many foreign writers were doing. He found it necessary to raise against certain concepts and methods that had became customary among the few Albanians writers of the time.

Konitza never saw or treated issues with the view of the idealist, he did never for a moment in his political life experience the exultation of the apostle. Neither can it be said that he was a cold, insensitive realist who weighed and analyzed everything before expressing opinions or taking actions. He did, nevertheless, find faults with the practice of uttering only praise for the Albanian people, of portraying them as if they were the finest people in the world. Hence he started to bring out into the open also their shortcomings and their faults, and to bitterly attack those traits with biting sarcasm, exactly as another man of genius, his friend Gjergj Fishta, had started to with satire in poetry.

In this approach the similarity between the two men is so striking as is the harshness and ferocity of their attack. Konitza wanted to make a new man out of the Albanian. Now that the labors of Naim Frasheri had awakened them from the centuries-old slumber, he wanted to turn his people into a civilized, Western Nation. To that end he also set out to revitalize and give new direction to the Albanian culture and literature, exerting on them his strong influence, And, indeed, we can state here that in the second stage of our revival, Konitza definitely played a dominant role in the development of the Albanian culture and literature, just as Frasheri had done in the early stage. There lies Konitza, great merit – the contribution ha has been given credit for, not only in the history books published in Albania, but not even in the other books on literary history, where he is barely mentioned, and than only as a "publicist". Impulsive, dynamic, and passionate, he was the opposite of a gentle and suave Frasheri, who, enlightened as he was by Western ideas, still remained caught between the two cultures. With his purely Western outlook Konitza felt there was nothing to tie him to the East any longer.

It was thus natural that he would follow a different course from that of Frasheri - in the political, as well as in the cultural arena. In politics, after a while, Konitza began to disagree with the thinking of the leaders of our national awakening who, concerned that the Ottoman Empire might yet last for a long time, and fearful above all the danger from our neighbors, maintained that Albania should continued to be tied to Turkey.

Realizing from his vantage point view in Europe that the Empire was closer to its downfall than thought by his compatriots, Konitza closed the door to any ties with Turkey, and began to look for new friends for Albania. In the field of culture he became even more intransigent. Sami Frasheri, Vaso Pasha, Naim Frasheri, Jani Vreto, and others were the first to open the road for the development of an Albanian culture; they sowed that initial seed which did miracles in promoting cultural activity. Much of the fruit of that activity, though, was the product of novices - it lacked the refinement of expertness. Other works amounted to nothing more than worthless imitations of Naim by the many Albanians who over night turned into "poets". It is exactly here that Konitza comes in to give his invaluable contribution. As is usually the case with people of his young age, he did not have the patience to study in depth the writings of his predecessors, especially those of
Naim. Likewise, because it was to soon to properly appraise the fruit of their work, Konitza did not perceive their great merit of having laid the foundations of a national Albanian literature. He wanted to create a new high quality literature and a new aesthetic taste - a typical rebellion of the young against the old.

Educated in a France where at the end where at the end of the last century activity was shining with the brilliance of names like Verlaine, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud, what would Frasheri's poetry sound like to Konitza other than "verses of dervishes"? But I would like here to interject a few remarks on this subject. Konitza unquestionably exaggerated with regard to Naim Frasheri and was wrong in his judgment, but it is clear what really made him turn against the poet. Was it the natural jealousy and rivalry of one writer for another? Notwithstanding the fact that he wrote touchingly at the time of Frasheri's death, Konitza to the end of his life was not able to penetrate Naim's poetry and to understand the deep spiritual world and the high intellectual level which permeate his elaborate mysticism and give profound expression to that benevolence and universal love so well defined by the world of his making "miresi". That love and goodwill are present in Frasheri's weaker verses as well and make them enjoyable. It is true, on the other hand, that many of his verses are rhymed lines and nothing more. Being mainly an aesthetist, Konitza expected to always find great art in every line of poetry - an almost impossible task, for as the saying goes "sometimes even Homer sleeps". It is, however, an undeniable fact that Konitza's attitude kept a lot of scribblers from trying to enter the field of literature. Moreover, he was the first to introduce into the Albanian culture the elements of literary critique and to explain to the Albanians what that was. He was truly the promoter of the development of Albanian culture in the second period of our national revival, and the reformer and westernizer of that culture. Around him in Albania gathered the best young writers at the time - men like Luigj Gurakuqi, Gjergj Fishta, Cajupi, Fan Noli, Filip Shiroka, Asdreni and many others. It is there that the principles of democracy were carried further, and literary critique and prose as art saw their birth in
Albanian culture.