Arshi Pipa

Arshi Pipa (July 28, 1920 – July 20, 1997) was an Albanian-American philosopher, writer, poet and literary critic.[1]

Arshi Pipa
Born(1920-07-28)July 28, 1920
Shkodër, Albania
DiedJuly 20, 1997(1997-07-20) (aged 76)
Washington, D.C., United States
Occupationphilosopher
LanguageAlbanian, English, French, Italian
NationalityAlbanian
CitizenshipAlbanian, United States
EducationPhD on philosophy
Alma materUniversity of Florence
Period1944–1995
Genreepic poetry, literary criticism

Biography

Arshi Pipa was born in 1920 in Shkodër and attended school there until 1938. Pipa received a BA equivalent degree ("Laurea") in philosophy at the University of Florence in 1942.[2] After he completed his studies he was a teacher of Italian language in different schools in Albania.[3]

He was imprisoned for ten years (1946–56) in Communist Albania[4] because he antagonized the communist regime with his recitation of a verse from a "Song of the Flea" by Goethe found in a translation of Faust.[3] After he was released from prison (his original sentence was 20 years, but after amnesty it was cut to 10) he escaped to Yugoslavia and lived in Sarajevo during the period 1957–9.[3] In 1959 he emigrated to the United States where he taught at Adelphi College, Georgetown University, Columbia University, and UC Berkeley. Then, from 1966 to 1989, he was a professor of Italian literature in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Minnesota.[3][5][6]

Pipa died in Washington DC on July 20, 1997.[6]

Work

The first poetry Pipa composed in late 1930, Lundërtarë [Seamen], was published in Tirana in 1944. When he was in prison he thought out and actually wrote some parts of his best-known collection of poems, Libri i burgut [The Prison Book], published in 1959.[7] His epic poem Rusha (1968), composed in 1955 during his imprisonment, describes love between Albanians and Serbs in the late 14th century.[3]

Pipa claimed that the unification of the Albanian language was wrong because it deprived Albanian language of its richness at the expense of Gheg.[8] He called the unified literary Albanian language a "monstrosity" produced by the Tosk communist leadership, who conquered anti-communist north Albania and imposed their Tosk Albanian dialect on the Ghegs.[9]

References
  1. Elsie, Robert. "Arshi Pipa". Robert Elsie. Archived from the original on January 9, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2012. Writer and scholar, Arshi Pipa (1920–1997) ... studied philosophy ... published ... poetry
  2. Elsie, Robert. "Arshi Pipa". Robert Elsie. Archived from the original on January 9, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2012. in Shkodra where he attended school until 1938. ..Pipa studied philosophy at the University of Florence, where he received the degree of "dottore in filosofia" in 1942.
  3. The Columbia literary history of Eastern Europe since 1945, New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, p. 152, ISBN 978-0-231-50804-9, OCLC 174138806, retrieved January 11, 2012, ...at a poetry reading ... antagonized the authorities with his recitation of lyrics...that also included ... lines from Goethe's song...
  4. Elsie, Robert. "1959 Arshi Pipa: Communism and Albanian Writers". Archived from the original on January 10, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2012. Arshi Pipa (1920–1997) spent ten years in prison (1946–1956) in communist Albania
  5. Zeitschrift für Balkanologie. R. Trofenik. 1984. p. 211. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  6. Kvanbeck, Martha (1997). "1997–98 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA (No. 1) UNIVERSITY SENATE MINUTES". University of Minnesota. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2012. he taught at Georgetown, Columbia, and Berkeley before being appointed in 1966 to our University's Department of romance Languages
  7. Books abroad. University of Oklahoma. 1971. p. 556. Retrieved January 10, 2012. Arshi Pipa, an Albanian poet now living in the United States, is best known for his Libri i Burgut (The Prison Book), a collection of poems which were thought out, and in some cases actually written, during a long spell of political
  8. Canadian review of studies in nationalism: Revue canadienne des études sur le nationalisme, Volume 19. University of Prince Edward Island. 1992. p. 206. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
  9. Canadian review of studies in nationalism: Revue canadienne des études sur le nationalisme, Volume 19. University of Prince Edward Island. 1992. p. 207. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
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