Epos and Rhapsodes in the Court of Qyprilli Dynasts

Abstract

In the closure of the novel “ Pallati i endrrave” by Ismail Kadare, where the Qyprilli (Copryly) Clan already appears in its downfall, in the court of Albanian dynasts who saved the empire, Albanian rhapsodists who have just started to deify with their epos the glory of the rebel Kurt are presented. This fact serves as a starting point in order to justify and answer some questions that deal with the relationship of the legendary Epic to the history as well as another manner of reading this novel exactly through the presence of rhapsody as a signifier of the deeds of that period. The novel has been read in general as a counter totalitarian work, and without any doubt this is one of its truth. Meanwhile, another reading would seem as an allusion to the Albanian clans in Kosovo and ex Yugoslavia, which being multiethnic as it was, had some similarities with the Ottoman Empire. The rhapsodist is presented in the novel only to show that there is another story beside that official one, and that the rebellion part will deserve the epos and not the Qyprillian part serving the Empire. Written in the year 1978, in the time when in Kosovo a clear distinction was drawn between pro Yugoslav side and the side that was dreaming of an ethnic state, in this novel, the presence of rhapsodists and rhapsody is not only an artistic device, but a key to another reading. Keywords: Ismail Kadare, novel, dossier, archive, dream, state, citizen, Albanian, throne, Pallati i Endrrave , Tabir Saraj, epos, rhapsodes, song, Qyprillinj, history, Sulltan, Ottoman dynasty, Albania, context, official, national, employee, bridge, etc.