How Blood Vengeance is Depicted in Albanian Popular Culture
What is it about?
Albania has been plagued for centuries by the act of taking blood as revenge for any perceived besmirching of honour. This practice of blood vengeance known as gjakmarra is a significant source of inspiration for creators of Albanian popular culture. Socialist popular culture intended to show this practice as evil while dissident and post-socialist creators have often taken a somewhat ambivalent stance. This article will survey, compare and contrast the depiction of blood vengeance in Albanian literature, specifically the novels of Ismail Kadare, and in Albanian cinema.
Why is it important?
Blood feuds continue to scourge Albanian society. Where it used to be that only the men of the feuding families would kill each other in turn, in recent years women and even young children have become involved. This article explores how this is depicted in Albanian cinema, old socialist and new modern, and the novels of eminent Albanian writer Ismail Kadare.