In Konica (today in Greece), Faik Konica was born a writer, literary critic, publicist, and essayist, one of the most prominent personalities of Albanian culture and literature. He received his first lessons in his hometown, in Turkish, Arabic and Greek. He continued his education at the Jesuit school in Shkodër, then in Istanbul, at the French Imperial High School. He continued his high school studies in France and his university studies in philosophy in Dijon and Paris. In 1912, he received a “Master’s” degree in literature at the Harvard University (USA). Faik Konica was connected early on with the ideas of the Albanian national movement. The fruit of this first wave of patriotism was the pamphlet in French “Les Albanaises et les Turques” Paris, 1895 (“Albanians and Turks”). In 1897, Faik Konica settled in Brussels, where in the same year, he started publishing the political-cultural and literary magazine “Albania,” which soon became the most important and authoritative organ of the Albanian national movement. Originally published in Albanian, French, and partially in Turkish, “Albania” represented a true encyclopedia of Albanian history, culture, and life. From 1903 to 1909, the magazine was published in London. After its closure, Faik Konica settled in the USA, where he continued his journalistic activity by publishing the organs “Dielli” and then “Trumpeta e Krujës”. With the establishment of the “Vatra” federation (1912), he was elected general secretary and then its president (1921). In 1913, he visited Albania. After the return of Ahmet Zogu to power (December 1924), he maintained a conciliatory position with the latter and in 1926, he was appointed minister of Albania to the USA. Faik Konica marked an important turning point in Albanian literature. With his literary work, and especially with his critical writings, Albanian literature moved from romantic affirmative pathos to satirical pathos of criticism of old mindsets. Faik Konica was a harsh critic bordering on cynicism, reflecting a deep knowledge of the Albanian mentality and social and political life. For this reason, in historical-literary studies, he is seen as the founder of that critical awareness of Albanian life and phenomena, which in general permeates not only his work, but also, in a good part, the literature of the first half of the 20th century. His most prominent work, the long satirical prose “Doktor Gjilpëra zbulon rrënjët e dramës së Mamurrasit” (“Doctor Gjilpëra reveals the roots of the drama of Mamurras”), is a testimony of his aesthetic and artistic platform, which is based on realism as an artistic approach to the Albanian problem, as well as on satire as the main literary tool to generalize it. The writings of Faik Konica have played an important role in the cultivation and enrichment of Albanian and in the differentiation of its styles. He was decorated with the “Honour of the Nation” Order. (In the photo: Faik Konica)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1263-1264.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faik_Konica
Graphic processing: AHCF
