Open AccessBlood feud through the historical imagination of Ismail Kadare: An analysis of "Broken April"
Author(s) -
Brunilda Pali,
Robert E. Mackay
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
oñati socio-legal series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2079-5971
DOI - 10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1215
Subject(s) - feud , ethos , perspective (graphical) , politics , relation (database) , sociology , prism , history , epistemology , law , political science , philosophy , art , computer science , visual arts , physics , optics , database
This paper explores the practice of the blood feud refracted through the prism of Ismail Kadare’s Broken April (1978), which is set in early 20th century Albania. Analysis of emerging themes reveals some important insights for Law and Literature. We examine the relationship of the blood feud with a number of themes, which fall under the structural headings of socio-political conditions, social ethos and values, and mechanisms of conflict management. Situating the author’s agenda within a perspective of historical imagination, between history and epic, past and present, suggests the perspective of la longue durée in relation to customary laws and feuding. That insight in turn prompts reflections about the survival and continuation of blood feuding as a form of life in contemporary societies.