A tragicomedy where two committed American scholars go to Albania attempting to understand who Homer was after listening to a programme in which a classicist says that there still is, in the world, an area where epic poetry is still ‘being produced’.
Not all went well once they reached — they got caught up in local politics, and became the subject of the fantasies of the local governor’s wife although their work was ultimately undone by a hermit (who upon the instigation of a Serb monk) destroyed their supposedly satanic tape recorder and their recordings of rhapsodes. Ironically, this act seemed to give Albanian epic poetry its last splutter of life, with a ballad being written about the two scholars.
Apart from the rather interesting look at the work of the scholars in Albanian, and the entertaining descriptions of the government trying to spy on them to uncover the foreigners' ‘real’ mission (which they imagine is spying), the book contains a fascinating character sketch of the governor's wife, a woman disenchanted with her life.
The epics which the scholars in The File on H consider are fascinating, and although they are based entirely in Albania, the author mentions that they exist in the form of mirror images in Serbia, and points out how impenetrable they are, and how Helen of Troy seems to be an amalgam of various versions of Akjuna:
"Kadare," says Cranshaw, "uses the example of Ajkuna's malleability as a pretext to explore the uncertainties surrounding narrative in general. Ajkuna is as enigmatic a figure as Helen of Troy; it is impossible to penetrate her real motivations or her loyalties towards her husband, lover, or native culture. Similarly, despite the Albanian setting of the novel, Kadare never makes the case for an exclusive claim of ownership over the epics. By doubling the voice of the scholars with that of the author-narrator, The File on H uses the epic songs as a vehicle for exploring the concept of cultural heritage and the absurdity of using them as a catalyst for national disputes."
Not all went well once they reached — they got caught up in local politics, and became the subject of the fantasies of the local governor’s wife although their work was ultimately undone by a hermit (who upon the instigation of a Serb monk) destroyed their supposedly satanic tape recorder and their recordings of rhapsodes. Ironically, this act seemed to give Albanian epic poetry its last splutter of life, with a ballad being written about the two scholars.
Apart from the rather interesting look at the work of the scholars in Albanian, and the entertaining descriptions of the government trying to spy on them to uncover the foreigners' ‘real’ mission (which they imagine is spying), the book contains a fascinating character sketch of the governor's wife, a woman disenchanted with her life.
“I am the wife of a common little official, she thought. She had poured out her bile to no effect with the prison governor’s wife and with the wife of the soap-manufacturer. Her husband did dirtier work than theirs, he really did. She was the one to pity, she really was.”The book is, of course, fiction but a note at the end reveals that it was inspired by the work of Milman Parry and Albert Lord based on material they had collected in Yugoslavia. "Parry," the note says, "died in an accident shortly after his return from the Balkans, having written only the first twelve pages of his envisaged treatise, The Singer of Tales. Albert Lord completed the work many years later."
The epics which the scholars in The File on H consider are fascinating, and although they are based entirely in Albania, the author mentions that they exist in the form of mirror images in Serbia, and points out how impenetrable they are, and how Helen of Troy seems to be an amalgam of various versions of Akjuna:
"[W]e encounter issues that are more tangled than grass roots. For example, we have now identified two other versions of the adventures of Ajkuna, wife of Muj, and they give quite different explanations for what happened to her. It must have been the same thing for the rape of Helen in pre-Homeric poems – until Homer came along and chose one of the variants. .... As each of them gives different accounts for Ajkuna’s position, the different versions of the Albanian ballad are, individually, clear and straightforward. In one version, Ajkuna is carried off into slavery by Muj’s Slav rival, and, like any prisoner, spends her time waiting for her her time waiting for her release from captivity. But there is another version where the kidnapper is so fascinated by her that he turns her into a princess. Not only does he abandon his wife, but he forces her to hold a torch between her teeth to illuminate the first night of his lovemaking with Ajkuna. This variant does not mention Ajkuna’s own feelings; but in two other versions, those feelings are clearly delineated. In one, despite being made a princess, Ajkuna remains faithful to her first husband; in the other, she falls in love with her kidnapper as soon as she is carried off, and furthermore, when Muj comes to rescue her, she cheats on him heartlessly."In an essay in Negotiating Culture: Moving, Mixing and Memory in Contemporary Europe, Robert Cranshaw asks: "Can The File on H not itself be read as a piece of 'metahistory' which deliberately deconstructs the processes by which historical evidence is made to serve political ends?," pointing out that '[t]here are no real winners in the novel'.
"Kadare," says Cranshaw, "uses the example of Ajkuna's malleability as a pretext to explore the uncertainties surrounding narrative in general. Ajkuna is as enigmatic a figure as Helen of Troy; it is impossible to penetrate her real motivations or her loyalties towards her husband, lover, or native culture. Similarly, despite the Albanian setting of the novel, Kadare never makes the case for an exclusive claim of ownership over the epics. By doubling the voice of the scholars with that of the author-narrator, The File on H uses the epic songs as a vehicle for exploring the concept of cultural heritage and the absurdity of using them as a catalyst for national disputes."