Martin Camaj

Martin Camaj ( born July 21, 1925 in Temal [Note 1], Dukagjin, district of Shkodra, Albania, † March 12, 1992 in Munich) was an Albanian writer and Albanologist. From 1971 to 1990 he was the owner of the corresponding chair at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich.

Life

Martin Camaj came in a small, remote village in the Albanian Alps, the son of a shepherd with seven children to the world. According to his own statements, the year of birth is 1925, a bug in the papers - in fact he was born in 1927. The spiritual culture of this archaic mountains was characterized by illiteracy and found its expression in oral tradition. In Shkodra, the center of northern Albania, he attended an Italian Jesuit school. The necessary scholarship had given him the village priest. After high school, he founded the village Prekal [Note 2] a first elementary school that he ran as a single teacher. Because he was part of the resistance against the Communists, he went into hiding after half a year. 1949 Camaj fled over the mountains in winter to Yugoslavia - Albania he never returned. Martin Camaj had no contact with his family, who spent decades in labor camps. One of his brothers had been imprisoned for 30 years.

At the University of Belgrade Camaj studied 1949-1955 Slavic, Romance, Albanian Studies and Balkan folk literatures. 1953 and 1954 he published one of the first in Albanian in Pristina two volumes of poetry. In 1956 he emigrated to Rome, as he was increasingly exposed to reprisals. In Italy, he published more books and served as editor in chief of the Albanian literary magazine " Shêjzat ". The linguist drew up the fact more and more an image of modern literature. In 1960 he completed his doctoral thesis, begun in Belgrade on Gjon Buzuku.

With a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service in January 1960 he came to Munich, where he was at the university initially worked as a lecturer. In 1964 he completed his habilitation on the Albanian word formation. From 1965 he worked at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University as a lecturer. Since 1971, he worked as a professor of Albanian studies at the initiative, launched by him professorship. [Note 3] He was the first son of a shepherd was, who was appointed to a professorship at the University. He lived in Lenggries - a place that reminded him of his native hills - and wrote in Bavaria much of his literary work. 1969 married Camaj the German Erika. After the opening of Albania it was his health no longer to visit his homeland again.

Work

Literary creation

Camaj is considered a modern classic of the Albanian literature. His 45 -year-old work went through several stages of development. His first poems were inspired by his mountain home. This was followed by novels interspersed with poetry and were less rhetorical. Under the influence of Giuseppe Ungaretti show his works soon influences of Hermeticism.

• Nji fyell Santander male - Prishtina 1953
• Kanga e vërrinit - Prishtina 1954
• Djella - Rome 1958
• Legjenda - Rome 1964
• Lirika mes dy moteve - Munich 1967
• Rrathë - Munich 1967
• Njeriu më vete dhe të me tjerë - Munich 1978
• Shkundullima - Munich 1985
• Poezi (1953-1967) - Munich 1981
• Dranja: Madrigals - Munich 1981
• Carpathian - Munich 1987
• Poetry ( Nema & Buelli ) - New York 1990
• Palimpsest - Munich / New York 1991
• Kandili Argjandit (Acting) - Cosenza 1993

Research

Focus of the creation of Camaj were the dialects of Arbëreshen in Italy and the Albanian written language. At first he had placed the main focus of his research on historical texts, then the history of language. His overall research objective was the varieties of the Albanian language.

In 1969 he published his textbook for the first time the Albanian language, one of the first modern Albanian textbooks. An initially planned revision of this book grew into a most evocative representation of gegischen, Tosk and arber eschen language. The 1984 published works Albanian Grammar he understood as a synthesis of all of its fields.

In 1974 he published together with Uta Schier - Oberdorffer the collection Albanian fairy tale.

• Il Messale di Gjon Buzuku - Rome, 1961
• Albanian word formation. The mode of formation of the older nouns - Wiesbaden 1966
• Textbook of the Albanian language - Wiesbaden 1969
• La parlata albanese di provincia di Greci in Avellino - Florence 1971
• Racconti di popolari Greci ( Katundi ) in provincia di Avellino e di Barile ( Barili ) in provincia di Potenza - Rome 1972
• Albanian fairy tale - Cologne - Dusseldorf 1974
• The Albanian dialect of Falconara Albanese in the province of Cosenza - Munich 1977
• Cuneus Prophetarum a Petro Bogdano - Munich 1977
• Albanian Grammar with Exercises, chrestomathy and Glossaries - Wiesbaden 1984
• La parlata arbëreshedi San Costantino Albanese in provincia di Potenza - Rende 1991
• On the Topography and History of Himara landscape in southern Albania. - Munich 1991

Recognition

Apolitical - - ​​Literature de facto banned in communist Albania Camajs was. According Lanksch he renounced the usual pathos there, patriotic Gesülze and glorification Albanian heroism; the Diaspora, he was, however, as the hope and light look. In fact, the writer has been honored in the democratic Albania. However, his authored in the northern Albanian idiom work and its sophisticated texts are difficult to access.

Also, on a scientific level, it came before the turn to no exchange between Camaj and Albanian scientists in Tirana.

For the maintenance and dissemination of his work was founded in Munich in 1993, the Martin Camaj Society.

Published 1996 in Albania five volumes of the collected works Camajs with the support of Ministry of Culture. After the takeover of government responsibility by the Socialists, the successor to the Communist Party, the Democrats, the publication will not be continued. In 2002, Martin Camaj postmortem received from the Ministry of Culture of the Golden Feather. Camaj should she get back in 1998, the award was granted short term but another author.