Ag Apolloni (; born 13 June 1982) is an Albanian writer, poet, playwright, scholar and essayist. He is a professor at the

University of Prishtina The University of Pristina ( sq, Universiteti i Prishtinës) is a public university located in Pristina, Kosovo. It is the institution that emerged after the disestablishment of the University of Pristina (1969–99) as a result of the K ...

. His literary works are distinguished for their dramatic dimension, philosophical treatment and critical attitude towards history, politics and society.

Early life

Ag Apolloni was born on 13 June 1982, in

Kaçanik Kaçanik ( sq-definite, Kaçaniku) or Kačanik ( sr-Cyrl, Качаник, ) is a List of cities in Kosovo, town and Municipalities of Kosovo, municipality located in the District of Ferizaj, Ferizaj District of southern Kosovo. According to the 20 ...

(

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Eur ...

). He completed elementary school and gymnasium in his hometown, in 2001. Then, in 2005, he completed his Dramaturgy and Literature studies at the

. For economic reasons, he stopped studying Philosophy in 2006 and spent most of two years in Pristina Hospital taking care of his ailing father, who died in 2007. In 2008, Ag Apolloni takes over title of Master of Philological Sciences, and in 2012 receives the title Doctor of Philological Sciences. Apolloni is currently a professor at the University of Pristina, where he has been working since 2008.

Work

Apolloni has worked as a journalist, editor and editor-in-chief in several daily newspapers and literary and cultural magazines in

Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians a ...

. In 2010 he reactivated and ran for three years the oldest literary magazine in Kosovo, "New Life" (in Albanian "Jeta e Re"), which was first founded in 1949, and closed in 2006. In 2013, he founded the cultural journal "Symbol", in which he conducted interviews with:

Linda Hutcheon Linda Hutcheon, FRSC, O.C. (born August 24, 1947) is a Canadian academic working in the fields of literary theory and criticism, opera, and Canadian studies. She is a University Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and of the Centre ...

Jonathan Culler Jonathan Culler (born 1944) is an American literary critic. He was Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. His published works are in the fields of structuralism, literary theory and literary crit ...

Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the positi ...

, Gottfried Helnwein,

Andreas Huyssen Andreas Huyssen (born 1942) is the Villard Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he taught beginning in 1986. He is the founding director of the university's Institute for Comparative Literature and ...

, DM Thomas,

Javier Cercas Javier Cercas Mena (born 1962 in Ibahernando) is a Spanish writer and professor of Spanish literature at the University of Girona, Spain. He was born in Ibahernando, Cáceres, Spain. He is a frequent contributor to the Catalan edition of '' ...

Ann Jefferson Ann Margaret Jefferson, (born 3 November 1949) is a British scholar of French literature. She was a fellow and tutor in French at New College, Oxford, from 1987 to 2015, and professor of French at the University of Oxford from 2006 to 2015. ...

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, ...

Stephen Greenblatt Stephen Jay Greenblatt (born November 7, 1943) is an American Shakespearean, literary historian, and author. He has served as the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University since 2000. Greenblatt is the general edit ...

Stanley Fish Stanley Eugene Fish (born April 19, 1938) is an American literary theorist, legal scholar, author and public intellectual. He is currently the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo ...

, David Damrosch etc. Apolloni's works have been translated into several languages, such as:

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, Czech, Macedonian, Montenegrin, etc. Apolloni has been awarded national awards several times for his fictional and scholarly works.

Oeuvre

Ag Apolloni started writing in 2003. In a café he had heard a war story about a criminal who had been collecting the eyes of his victims, and that story shocked him so deeply that he had created a monodrama overnight. This monodrama, called "Stephen, or the story of an eye collector", was published also in the Austrian Journal, "Lichtungen". During his studies he kept a poetic journal, which he published in 2009 under the title "Zomb". Whereas, in 2013 he publishes the novel "The Howl of the Wolf" (Albanian "Ulurima e ujkut"), where, through postmodern form, he combines pain with fury. The author spares no one, he criticizes everyone: himself, family, society, nation, world and God. After this novel, he writes the novel "Zazen" as an homage to a friend of him who, after finishing his studies at the Philosophy Branch, unable to find work in his native land, resentful of all, had decided to disappear and, after a few days, was found dead in an abyss. While Apolloni's plays provoke fear and compassion, as his poems transform intimate life into art, his prose is awe and rage. Whereas, studies of ''"Postmodern Parable"'' (Albanian "Parabola postmoderne") (2010), ''"The Paradigm of Proteus"'' (Albanian "Paradigma e Proteut") (2012) and reviews published in periodicals show a tendency to open up new research paths.

Novels

The Howl of the Wolf

The novel "The Howl of the Wolf" (2013) addresses many themes from multiple angles. The novel also deals with painful separation with the living and the dead. The novel is rife with despair and fury, accompanied by a dose of humor, with references to music, painting, film and theater. Events are set in

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

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 The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, where the novel is completed. The novel "The Howl of the Wolf" is translated in Macedonian, Czech and Montenegrin.

Zazen

"Zazen" (2014) deals with the fate of a young Kosovar, a friend of the author, who after graduation returns to his homeland, but this return becomes tragic for him, as he is neglected by the municipality, misunderstood by the village, declared insane from the family. "Zazen" interlinks a variety of topics: social, philosophical, political, national, religious, etc. It tells of Zen Zabel's anxiety and tragicomic life, which has many ideas, few demands and no possibilities.

Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame

"Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame" (2020) is a docuroman (documentary novel) about the real tragedy of two Kosovo Albanian mothers from

Gjakova Gjakova, ) and Đakovica ( sr-Cyrl, Ђаковица, ) is the seventh largest city of Kosovo and seat of Gjakova Municipality and Gjakova District. The city has 40,827 inhabitants, while the municipality has 94,556 inhabitants. Geographically ...

, after the war of 1999: one lost her whole family - her husband and four sons - and continues to wait for them more than twenty years later; the other burned herself to death after the remains of two of her sons were returned to her. The novel is a mosaic of the ill-fortunes of war and the painful consequences of peace. It resonates with the powerful echoes and eternal truths of ancient Greek tragedy, but also with twentieth century human horrors; it explores the meaning of motherhood, and family, and home. In 2022, it has been published in Dutch. The novel was praised by the Dutch theorist

Mieke Bal Maria Gertrudis "Mieke" Bal (born 14 March 1946 in Heemstede) is a Dutch cultural theorist, video artist, and Professor Emerita in Literary Theory at the University of Amsterdam. Previously she also was Academy Professor of the Royal Netherland ...

as "a literary masterpiece worth being turned into a film." The novel has been promoted in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

, on the fifteenth anniversary of Kosovo’s independence.

Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups

"Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups" (2022) is about a flirtatious Red Riding Hood and a sick Wolf. It is a love story and a walk through the magical forest of storytelling, where the characters enter the paths of mythology, fairy tale, religion, and animation. Screams and sighs, barks and bleats come as an allegorical confrontation that awakens the call of the wild within us. This narrative uses cartoon logic within combinatorial art, where theatrical, film, and musical elements are combined; it is prose with poetry and drama inside. Set in a small country on the continent that took its name from a raped woman (Europe), it also talks about the rapes during the war in Kosovo and their consequences on peace. Also, one chapter, which talks about the desperate and lonely wolf, is located in Debrecen, where the novel was written. The novel is built as a philosophical walk through a real and fabulous world. This is not a documentary novel, nor a pure fairy tale. “Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups” has been written in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

(

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

), and it was published in Albania (by “Albas”) and in Kosova (by Bard Books), at the same time.

Plays

Drama

The book "Drama: The story of an eyes collector, Halloween, Judith, Mat" (2010) contains three tragic dramas, which in the order of the number of characters openly display the reference to the origin of

Greek drama Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...

and antique theater (to The story of an eyes collector, who has only one character, fantasy leads to

Thespis Thespis (; grc-gre, Θέσπις; fl. 6th century BC) was an Ancient Greek poet. He was born in the ancient city of Icarius (present-day Dionysos, Greece). According to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, he was the first p ...

's carriage; Halloween includes the second character, according to

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Gree ...

's model, while Judith enters the third character, modeled on

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

), as well as a text of

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his fo ...

' spirit, as a relaxation for the public. Monodrama The story of an eyes collector is a harrowing story of an eye collector living in his pantry with 4,998 eyes collected during the

war in Bosnia The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

and

. Apolloni wrote this work at the age of 21 as "an elegy for the last decade of the last century, namely a reminder of the crimes that shocked the world." Monodrama is a story that treats love and crime, life and death as a binomial that can shock the public. ”Halloween is an incestuous story about Halloween night. This drama was written by Apolloni, prompted by the reading of a feast on the life of serial killer

Ted Bundy Theodore Robert Bundy (Name change, born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more th ...

. Judith is a biblically motivated drama treated as a mythical story of the East-West conflict, of the misunderstanding between man and God, and of subjection and courage. Comedy Mat is a pastime built on the works of directors

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known as "profoundly ...

and

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

, on the ridiculous confrontation between man and death.

Hamlet according to Horatio

"Hamlet according to Horatio" is a psychoanalytic tragedy embodying

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

's theoretical ideas to give a possible story of Hamlet, touching on the theme of double incest (brother-sister, mother-son) and the theme of multiple betrayals. "Hamlet according to Horatio" is a pastiche, or dramatic hypertext, built on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...

and on

's interpretations of

as an imperfect

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; grc-gre, Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby ...

. Thematically, "Hamlet according to Horatio" is an alternate story, echoed by

Oresteia The ''Oresteia'' ( grc, Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BCE, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of ...

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

, and

. This drama, called “My Hamlet” as a working title, has been announced as the winner of the annual "Katarina Josipi" Drama Award.

Scanderbeg: Marlowe's Manuscript

"Scanderbeg: Marlowe's Manuscript" is a play written according to the postmodern principle of manuscript, so as to find an Elizabethan drama of the 16th century which is considered a lost drama: "The True History of George Scanderbeg" by Christopher Marlowe. For the writing of this play the author has used many historical, literary, cinematographic and theatrical materials to create a credible reality of the Scanderbeg era. Here the hero presents himself between myth and reality, both a great and a human figure.

Poems

Zomb

"Zomb" (2009) is a madrigal book. It contains a total of 100 poems and an epistle-shaped representation. The book begins with a provocative dedication ("My Friend's Wife"), with two verses from English poet

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and polit ...

("If death joins me with you / it will be life for me"), as it unfolds in six units: Ouverture, Edenic Waltz, Dionysian Sonata, Siren Symphony, Requiem Eros and Coda. "Zomb" is an erotic-themed book, built on the principles of the medieval madrigal. It is a book that contains many elements of classical music, jazz, blues, rock, pop, etc.; from world cinema, from ancient, medieval, modernist, contemporary literature; and also from religions such as

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Totemism A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While ''the ...

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...

and Islam.

Non-fiction

My Middle Ages

"My Middle Ages" is a book of autobiographical essays, also referred to as narrative-essayist autobiography. The book consists of 10 essays with Latin titles: Obscura, Vulgus, Doctrina, Pelegrin, Allegoria, Persona, Schisma, Templarius, Inquisitio and Memento, which cover the life of the author and present-day Kosovar actuality.

Critical books

Literary studies

Apart from fiction, Ag Apolloni also deals with literary studies. He has so far published two study books: ''"Postmodern Parable"'' and ''"The Paradigm of Proteus"''. The first study, an extension of his master's thesis, is a monograph on the first postmodern Albanian writer,

Rexhep Qosja Rexhep Qosja (born 1936) is an Albanian writer and literary critic from a part of Malësia in modern Montenegro (where locally the region is known as ''Malesija''). Life and career He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Pristina and ...

. The second study, which is his doctoral thesis, is a monograph on the most translated Albanian novel, '' The General of the Dead Army'', by

Ismail Kadare Ismail Kadare (; spelled Ismaïl Kadaré in French; born on 28 January 1936) is an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. He is a leading international literary figure and intellectual. He focused on poetry until the pu ...

. Also, in 2016 he published the book ''

Konica was a Japanese manufacturer of, among other products, film, film cameras, camera accessories, photographic and photo-processing equipment, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers, founded in 1873. The company merged with Japanese peer Min ...

's Suitcase'', which is a collection of essays dealing with various issues of Albanian literature, such as its language, values, themes and functions of propaganda, historical, political, religious etc. It discusses the main authors, works and phenomena of this literature. In 2019 he started to publish a critical book called ''"Commentum"'', his major project in several volumes.

Bibliography

Poetry

*Zomb (2009) *Seneca's Sandals (Albanian: Sandalet e Senekës), (2020) *The Rhetoric of Silence (Albanian: Retorika e heshtjes), (2021)

Novels

*The Howl of the Wolf (Albanian: Ulurima e ujkut), (2013) *Zazen (2014) *Glimmer of hope, glimmer of flame (Albanian: Një fije shprese, një fije shkrepëse), (2020) *Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups (Albanian: Kësulëkuqja: përrallë për të rritur), (2022)

Plays

*The Story of An Eyes Collector, Halloween, Judith, Mat, (2010) *Hamlet according to Horatio (Albanian: Hamleti simbas Horacit), (2017) *Skanderbeg: Manuscript of Marlowe (Albanian: Skenderbeu, manuskripti i Marlout), (2018)

Studies, essays

*The Postmodern Parable (Albanian: Parabola postmoderne), (2010) *The Paradigm of Proteus (Albanian: Paradigma e Proteut), (2012) *Konitza's Suitcase (Albanian: Koferi i Konicës), (2016) *Commentum (2019)

Autobiography

*My Middle Age(s) (Albanian: Mesjeta ime), (2019)

In other languages

1. English: Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame, translated by Robert Wilton. Cornwall: Elbow, 2023. 2. German: - Ein Funke Hoffnung, ein zündender Funke, translated by Zuzana Finger. Zürich: Xanthippe, 2023. 3. Dutch: - Een sprankje hoop, een lont, translated by Jan Jansen. Utrecht: Het Wereldvenster, 2022. 4. Montenegrin: - Vučji urlik, translated by Danilo Brajović. Podgorica: Zavoda za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, 2022. 5. Czech: - Vytí vlka, vlka vytí, translated by Orkida Backus Borshi. Prague: Kniha Zlín, 2019. 6. Macedonian: - Завивањето на волкот, translated by Mirjana Ilieva Jashari. Skopje: Goten, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apolloni, Ag 1982 births Living people Albanian essayists Albanian journalists Albanian male poets Albanian male writers Albanian scholars Albanian dramatists and playwrights Academic staff of the University of Pristina