Ismail Kadare's THE FILE ON H. (=Homer)

[Betty]

The entertaining story was initially like jumping into cold water. Once I felt comfortable with Albanian epic verse and Albania's modern history, the shock of the new gave way to a good story. From the dust jacket or Wikipedia a reader gets the basic theme of the narrative. Two Irish Homeric scholars want to find the thread of Homer's epics in Albanian verse, which is still sung by rhapsodes, rare bards chanting the ages-old, thousand-line poems from memory. With their suspicious tape-recorder and microphone the foreigners Bill and Max record then transcribe the performances which are accompanied by the one-string lahuta. In scholarly fashion they ask why slight variations occur and why these omissions can be restored by later performers and at other times and places. This glimpse into the first half of the book lays the groundwork for what will become more wry humor. Here is something to give an idea of the Albanian highlanders' lahuta and malcis, which have more national symbolism than being musical instruments.
http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/Gj... (the Lute re: Albanian National Epic)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahuta/G... (the section about the Albanian variety of the instrument)

[Betty]

The second half of the novel leads up to the scholars' enthusiastic expectation that they will hear, record, and transcribe more rhapsodic chanters of centuries-old epic. Daisy the governor's wife has her own anticipations that she is pregnant with a child by either one of the Irishmen or one of the spies. While the governor and his spies are falsely accusing Bill and Max of spying, the Serbo-Croatians are also unfriendly with the foreigners, who claim that the Albanian epic is the precursor of the Serbian-Croatian one.

[Betty]

Some new appreciation for the novel once it is reread:

*The cultural history of Albanian highlanders, whose society had a set of communal laws, kanun, similar to the Italian vendetta. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanun
*The environment: geographical place-names of plains, mountains, towns, and regions; winter's fog, cold, and darkness.
*The parallel stories of the Albanian rhapsodes and the Greek 'Oresteia'.
*Vengeance as a theme of ballads, similar to the Iliad's opening.
*The ancient ritual gesture, Majekrah or wing-tip, in a rhapsode's performance.

Photo pertains to Chapter 6 (p105).
Source: "Rrok zef dasha lulgjuraj-majekrah (c) Ardian Ahmedaja" at http://www.womex.com/virtual/ardian_a...

[Betty]

In chapter 8 the Irish scholars Bill and Max do not simply want to record the Albanian rhapsodes (chanters of epic poems which are passed to the next generations and are affiliated with a national ethos) but do seek to answer questions related to Homer's identity and to the rhapsodes' performances:

*is the process of forgetting during a performance intentional or accidental, i.e. are the omissions and additions real or faked; if real, then what is the rate of loss.

*is there an eye/ear relation in epic poetry (majekrah gesture as necessary for modulation and balance or as a ritual/symbol).

*is the epic material borrowed from another nation, such as Serbia, or original to Albania (Bill and Max think that the Albanians' forms are closer to the Homeric model, pp120-23, an unfounded notion to Serbo-Croatian nationals whose epics are also contenders); how are the oral ballads diffused from person to person, generation to generation, era to era.

Behind this ethnographic inquiry are apparently parallel political events that effect performances. The year 1878 marks the demise of new epic creation; in 1913 is Albania's dismemberment. Someone else will have to confirm whether these dates and others are significant in Albanian history.

More about how epic is influenced by the singer's own personal life follows in chapter 9 as well as more about political conditions: the recording machine sounding like a torture victim; the rhapsodes disappearing along with oral poetry; the walling up a person's shadow explains sudden deadly maladies; the Serbians seeing Homer and Illyrians as part of their own heritage.

After their recording numerous vocalists, Bill and Max look forward to a springtime trip that will take them into the Accursed Mountains, where more rhapsodes reside, and also create a new word for a contemporary event transformed into poetry, "epivent". A snag however threatens the scholars' project--an assault destroys their tape recorder and tears their reels of collected songs into fragments, an event reminiscent of the fragmentary songs they are piecing together. Night therefore seems to be descending upon the remaining oral epics since the rhapsodes are declining in numbers and Bill's advancing glaucoma makes doubtful a future trip. One of the few remaining hopes for people remembering the scholars' visit is Daisy, the governor's wife,...and another is an epic poem in a newspaper which Bill and Max find that pertains to their scholarly investigation--a real epivent that begins "A black apart rose from the waves…" (=Apparat, a piece of equipment), which cloudy-visioned Bill accurately chants with the ritual gesture of majekrah. All is not benighted in literature and politics because folks voice good and negative interpretations when talking about the effect of the scholars' presence and inquiry.