Faik Konica passed away in Washington (USA), a writer, literary critic, publicist, essayist, one of the most prominent figures in Albanian culture and literature. He was born in Konitsa (now in Greece) in 1875. He received his early education in his hometown, in Turkish, Arabic, and Greek. He continued his schooling at the Jesuit school in Shkodër, then in Istanbul, at the French Imperial Lyceum. He continued his high school education in France, and his university studies in philosophy in Dijon and Paris. In 1912, he obtained a master’s degree in literature from Harvard University (USA). Faik Konica was early associated with the ideas of the Albanian national movement. The fruit of this early wave of patriotism was also the brochure in French “Les Albanaises et les Turques” Paris, 1895 (“Albanians and the Turks”). In 1897, Faik Konica settled in Brussels, where in the same year he began publishing the political-cultural and literary magazine “Albania”, which quickly became the most important and authoritative organ of the Albanian national movement. Initially published in Albanian and French and partly 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 activities by publishing the newspapers “Dielli” (“The Sun”) and later “Trumbeta e Krujës” (“Trumpet of Kruja”). With the establishment of the federation “Vatra” (“Hearth”) (1912), he was elected secretary-general and later its chairman (1921). In 1913, he visited Albania. After the return of Ahmet Zog to power (December 1924), he maintained a reconciliatory stance with the latter, and in 1926, he was appointed Minister of Albania in the USA by him. Faik Konica marked an important turning point in Albanian literature. With his literary work and especially with his critical writings, Albanian literature shifted from romantic affirmative pathos to the satirical pathos of criticism towards old ideas. Faik Konica was a harsh critic bordering on cynicism, reflecting a deep understanding of Albanian social and political thought. For this reason, in historical-literary studies, he is considered the founder of that critical consciousness about Albanian life and phenomena, which generally pervades not only his work but, to a large extent, also the literature of the first half of the 20th century. His most notable work, the long satirical prose “Doktor Gjilpëra zbulon rrënjët e dramës së Mamurrasit” (“Doctor Needle discovers the roots of the drama of Mamurras”), is a testimony to his aesthetic and artistic platform, based on realism as an artistic approach to Albanian issues, as well as on satire as the main literary means to generalize it. Faik Konica’s writings have played an important role in enriching Albanian and differentiating its styles. He was decorated with the “Order of Honor of the Nation”. (In the photo: Faik Konica)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1263-1264.
Photo: © Xhoxhi L., personal collection.
Graphic processing: AHCF
