Martin Camaj (21 July 1925 – 12 March 1992) was an

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

folklorist, linguist, and writer. He is regarded as one of the major authors of modern Albanian prose. His novel ''Rrathë'' is considered to be the first

psychological novel In literature, psychological fiction (also psychological realism) is a narrative genre that emphasizes interior characterization and motivation to explore the spiritual, emotional, and mental lives of the characters. The mode of narration examin ...

written in Albanian.

Life

Martin Camaj was born in Temal, Shkodër District,

Shkodër County Shkodër County ( sq, Qarku i Shkodrës) is a county in northwestern Albania, with the capital in Shkodër. The county spans and had a total population of 197,177 people as of 2021. The county borders on the counties of Lezhë, Kukës and the cou ...

, northwestern

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

on 21 July 1925. He first studied in the Jesuit Saverian College of

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra) is the fifth-most-populous city of the Republic of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. The city sprawls across the Plain of Mbishkodra between the southern part of Lake Shkod ...

and afterwards in the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-b ...

. Later Camaj worked as professor of

at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

, where he did postgraduate research and finished studies on linguistics in 1960. In 1957 he became the editor-in-chief of the Albanological journal ''Shejzat'' published in Rome. In 1961 he settled in Munich and first worked as a lector at the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, while in 1964 he became a

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

. In 1970 he earned his professorship and until 1990 he was a professor of

Albanology Albanology, also known as Albanian studies, is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the language, costume, literature, art, culture and history of Albanians. Within the studies the scientific methods of literature, ling ...

at the same university. A resident of

Lenggries Lenggries is a municipality and a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the center of the Isarwinkel, the region along the Isar between Bad Tölz and Wallgau. The town has about 9,500 inhabitants. By area, it is the largest rural municipality (" Gemei ...

, Bavaria since the 1970s Camaj died there on 12 March 1992.

Works

Camaj's works revolve around themes like the loss and search for tradition and the loneliness brought by future changes. His first verse collections ''Nji fyell ndër male'' (A flute in mountains) and ''Kanga e Vërrinit'' (Song of the lowland pastures) were published in Pristina in 1953 and 1954 respectively. His first major prose work was ''Djella'', published in Rome in 1958. His next novel ''Rrathë'' (Circles) was published in Munich in 1978. ''Rrathë'', which is Camaj's largest work, took him fifteen years to complete and is regarded as the first psychological novel written in Albanian. The novel is divided in three cycles: water, fire and blood, which symbolize recurrent metaphysical and social themes. In 1981 a collection titled ''Shkundullima'' (Quaking) that included five short stories and one play of Camaj was published. His last novel ''Karpa'', which was published in 1987 in Rome, is a

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

n work set in 2238.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Camaj, Martin 1925 births 1992 deaths People from Vau i Dejës Linguists from Albania Albanian novelists Sapienza University of Rome alumni University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich 20th-century novelists 20th-century linguists