Magic elements from Kim Mehmeti's prose
| Author | Enida Godime |
| Position | Lecturer in UAMD - Durres, Albania |
| Pages | 96-101 |
Vo
l.
6
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o
. 1
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arc
h,
202
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A
cademic Journal o
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Business,
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dministration, Law and Social Science
s
II
PCCL Publishin
g
, Graz-
A
ustri
a
I
SSN 2410-391
8
A
cces online at www.ii
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ccl.or
g
96
M
a
g
ic elements from Kim Mehmeti’s pros
e
M
sc.
E
n
i
d
a
G
o
d
i
m
e
Lecturer in
UA
MD – Durres,
A
lbania
Ab
str
a
ct
Kim Mehmeti is an
A
lbanian writer born in Gercec, a small village near Skopje, Macedonia.
He writes both in Macedonian and
A
lbanian, which is impressive considering he never
studied
A
lbanian growing up. This broadened his audience to both his compatriots and the
M
acedonian people. Mehmeti has played a huge part in helping the
A
lbanian population in
M
acedonia have their voice heard and their political rights matched.
Kim Mehmeti’s prose, a result o
f
a contemporary modernization o
f
the prose, has its roots tightly
connected to myths, legends, and superstitions of the
A
lbanian folklore, while also having
t
raits of the classical forms of prose, modernizations, and especially the magical realization.
The main treat of the novel “Two storey tower” (Kulla dy katëshe) lies in the thematic features
t
hat show a creation, which takes the shape of a magical novel. This includes: the presence
of the myth and the legend as phenomena, very crucial in the tower’s creation and survival:
superstitions, in how the tower manages to keep standing, and also how people who live in it
g
enerate ‘life’ from it; the presence of ethnic elements and the confrontation of other cultures
t
hat claim this as their own antipode; the anthropomorphism and metamorphosis described in
a
basic way; and also calling out social, ethnical, criminal, and political injustices. Having the
m
ain subject in a small village, is not about it being in a small community.
I
n a metaphorical
way, it represents the beginning of the making of a nation, it is where it all begins. The people
of the village are always around the two story tower, however the happenings take place in
d
i
e
r
e
nt
oa
s
e
s.
Ke
y
wor
d
s
:
Kim Me
h
meti,
p
rose,
Alb
ania
.
I
ntr
oduc
t
io
n
Modernization is in general a movement that used the urban li
f
e, urban cities
es
p
eciall
y
, as a re
fl
ection o
f
societ
y
at the time, but in this novel, ever
y
thing takes
p
lace in the village that goes b
y
the name o
f
Sukë, and es
p
eciall
y
around the tower,
wh
i
ch
i
ts
e
l
f
i
s t
u
rn
e
d
i
nt
o
a
ch
a
r
a
ct
e
r w
i
th s
u
rr
ea
l ch
a
r
a
ct
e
r
i
st
i
cs. S
u
k
a
t
u
rns
i
nt
o
a Makondo, (the village o
f
the novel “
O
ne hundred
y
ears o
f
loneliness” wri en b
y
Mar
q
uez), which reveals 4 generations to the reader: the
fi
rst builder
f
rom the Metaj
f
amil
y
, a ver
y
dull and silent man, who
f
ound himsel
f
in a ver
y
di
cult situation,
in which his
y
oungest son got ra
p
ed; the second generation being Mr. Metaj’s oldest
son
,
Dema
,
who had to move to
I
stanbul a
er he could not live with the shame that
he did not honor his
f
riend. Moral norms win over the
f
amil
y
histor
y
which has been
p
reserved
f
rom the tower; the third generation includes Dema’s successors, Sula,
Bani, and Rexha, who have to deal with the
f
atalit
y
o
f
a terrible curse, and not being
able to undo it; and lastl
y
, the
f
ourth generation is re
p
resented b
y
Dema’s ne
p
hew
.
His name is never mentioned throu
g
hout the whole novel, he is rather re
f
erred to
as “t
h
e newcomer’, or just “Dema’s ne
ph
ew”, w
h
ic
h
ten
d
s to em
ph
asize t
h
e tig
h
t
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