by Claire Patouillet, essayist and literary analyst, member of the association, November 2025
I. Kadaré et l’anthropologie : une relation complexe
The writer as ethnographer
Ismaïl Kadaré occupies a unique position in the literary world: that of a writer and an ethnographic observer of his own society. Although not an anthropologist by training, he demonstrates in his novels an intimate knowledge of Albanian social structures, their codes, rituals and internal logic.
This ethnographic dimension of his work is not a matter of picturesque folklore or local colour. It stems from a deliberate desire to document, analyse and question the anthropological foundations of Albanian society. Kadaré draws on the work of Albanologists, incorporates their findings and engages implicitly with their analyses.
Kadaré’s work thus paints a picture of Albania that aligns with the concerns of Albanology, the discipline that studies the Albanian language, history, culture and institutions[1]. It draws on the work of both foreign and Albanian Albanologists to explore themes and ideas concerning the cultural characteristics and history of the Albanian people.
The epistemological status of the ethnographic novel
This raises the following questions: what kind of knowledge can the novel produce regarding anthropological realities? Does the novelist’s approach to knowledge differ fundamentally from that of the ethnographer? The anthropologist Gérard Lenclud, who has examined Broken April[2], poses these questions with great insight.
The novel does not aim to patiently dissect observable social mechanisms and then reconstruct a framework of ideas and values crystallised within a given society. This task falls rather to the anthropologist. The writer, for their part, approaches it differently. They explore individual destinies caught in the grip of these structures.
Yet the novel can reveal anthropological truths that scientific analysis sometimes struggles to grasp. For example, the existential dimension of social constraints, the lived experience of traditional codes, or the way in which individuals negotiate with collective norms.
II. Le Kanun : code coutumier et structure anthropologique fondamentale
Nature and function of the Kanun
The Kanun constitutes the central anthropological structure in Kadaré’s work, particularly in Broken April, Qui a ramené Doruntine ? and The Three-Arches Bridge. This customary code, passed down orally from generation to generation, governs all aspects of social life in traditional northern Albania, namely family organisation, land ownership, hospitality, marriage, but above all the vendetta or gjakmarrja (blood feud).
The Kanun is known to be that of Prince Lekë Dukagjini, who is said to have passed it down orally amongst the tribes of the northern highlands of Albania during the 15th century[3]. However, its origins probably date back to much earlier layers of Albanian society, perhaps as far back as the Illyrians[4].
Contrary to popular belief, the Kanun is not limited to vendetta. It is at once a constitution, a civil code, a criminal code and a code of obligations. It structures all social relations and defines a comprehensive system of norms and values.
The vendetta and the cycle of blood
In Broken April, Kadaré explores, with almost ethnographic precision, the mechanism of the vendetta as codified by the Kanun. Gjorg, the protagonist, inherits a blood debt dating back forty years. He must kill his brother’s murderer, and then in turn submit to the vengeance of the opposing family.
The Kanun meticulously regulates every aspect of this process: the manner of killing, the treatment of the corpse, announcing the death to the community, periods of truce, the amount of blood tax to be paid, and so on. This extreme codification transforms violence into ritual and vengeance into a sacred duty.
In Kadaré’s writing, the highlander of the Plateau enters a life shaped body and soul by the laws of the Kanun. They constantly force themselves upon his memory—even in the landscape, such as a simple fallow field that signals a clan bound by a blood debt, or the charred walls of a *kulla* (a traditional dwelling of the Albanian highlands), the refuge of someone who has failed to meet his obligations.
The Kanun functions somewhat like a second nature—one from which, come what may, one cannot escape and to which one must submit. But is it not rather the natural offspring of a sick society? This question runs through Kadaré’s work and raises fundamental anthropological questions.
The institutions of the Kanun: bessa and hospitality
Beyond the vendetta, the Kanun establishes another essential norm of deep-rooted Albanian culture: bessa. Another central concept of the customary code, it refers to absolute respect for one’s word. In interviews with Eric Faye[5], Kadaré explains that, for him, bessa is linked to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, according to which a crime against one’s host constitutes the gravest of offences within the logic of the Kanun.
In the Kanun, hospitality takes on a sacred, almost divine character. Killing a guest is unforgivable, for it amounts to shedding the blood of God. Kadaré rephrases Article 602 of the Kanun: ‘The Albanian’s home is that of God and of the guest. ’ This absolute protection granted to the stranger bears witness to the antiquity of the code and its religious dimension.
The kulla: architecture and social structure
The kulla, a fortified stone tower characteristic of Northern Albania, constitutes far more than an architectural element in Kadaré’s work. It embodies the family structure and the traditional social organisation. The kulla is the place where the family takes refuge in the event of a vendetta, the space where protective seclusion is practised.
This architecture reflects a social organisation based on patrilineal descent (a system of filiation and inheritance through the father), clan solidarity and collective defence. The kulla symbolises the family’s permanence over time, its resistance to external aggression, but also its confinement within ancestral traditions.
III. Family and Tribal Structures
The Extended Patriarchal Family
Kadaré’s work provides a detailed account of traditional Albanian family structures, based on the extended patriarchal model. The family is not limited to the nuclear couple but encompasses several generations living under the authority of a patriarch.
This family organisation determines solidarity, obligations and inheritance. It shapes gender relations (absolute male domination, the seclusion of women), intergenerational relations (the submission of younger to older members), and marital alliances (arranged marriages, the movement of women between lineages).
In Broken April, this family structure is revealed in all its rigidity. Gjorg cannot escape the fate imposed on him by his family ties. He does not exist as an autonomous individual but as a link in a genealogical chain that transcends him and constrains him.
The tribal system and the "fis"
Beyond the family, traditional Albanian social organisation is based on the tribal system, or the fis. The fis refers to a patrilineal group, often exogamous (practising marriage between different fis, as opposed to endogamy), which constitutes the basic political and military unit in the northern mountains.
In Qui a ramené Doruntine ?, the story centres on a shift from endogamy to exogamy. Kadaré draws on an evolutionary premise according to which endogamous marriage is thought to have preceded exogamous marriage in the history of Albanian societies.
Indeed, Kadaré frequently refers to these tribal structures, which divide the territory into spheres of influence, determine alliances and conflicts, and perpetuate genealogical memories. The tribal system functions as an intermediate level between the family and the nation, creating particular bonds of solidarity but also deep divisions.
This tribal organisation partly explains the persistence of the vendetta, as responsibility is collective: the blood of one clan member calls for vengeance from the entire opposing clan. The individual is subsumed by collective identity.
Women in traditional structures
Kadaré’s work reveals the position of women within traditional social structures: objects of exchange between lineages, excluded from inheritance, subject to absolute male authority, but also, sometimes the guardians of memory and tradition.
In Qui a ramené Doruntine ?, the female figure takes centre stage, challenging the limits of the patriarchal system. Doruntine, married far from home, represents the woman caught between two families, two territories, two identities. Her miraculous return, attributed to her dead brother, calls into question the very foundations of the system.
The sworn virgins, known as burrnesha, are women who assume the status of men and renounce marriage. They constitute another utterly fascinating figure that Kadaré touches upon all too briefly. This status of women reveals, however, the relative flexibility of the gender system in certain circumstances, whilst also reaffirming the structural superiority of the masculine.
IV. Codes of honour and traditional values
Honour as an organising principle
Honour (nderi) is the central value that structures the entire traditional Albanian social system. It is not an individual sentiment but a collective asset. The family must preserve it at all costs.
Kadaré often defines this honour in negative terms. It can be lost, sullied or violated. Thus, the vendetta serves as the mechanism for restoring honour lost through the murder of a family member. Failing to avenge the bloodshed is tantamount to losing one’s honour for good – that is to say, one’s very social existence.
Kadaré shows how this logic of honour traps individuals in deadly cycles. Gjorg, in Broken April, has no choice. He must kill to preserve the family’s honour, at the cost of his own future life. Honour thus proves to be a ruthless master who demands the sacrifice of the living.
Shame and social exclusion
The counterpart to honour is shame (turp). It hangs like a constant threat over those who might transgress the codes, and weighs heavily when it falls upon their shoulders. Indeed, shame is not merely a moral sentiment; it leads to social exclusion, loss of status, and sometimes exile or death.
This logic of honour and shame functions as a formidably effective system of social control, if Kadaré is to be believed. It internalises collective norms, transforms external constraints into moral imperatives and, above all, makes transgression unthinkable.
Kadaré explores the psychological mechanisms through which individuals internalise these values to the point where they can no longer conceive of any alternative. The Kanun is not merely imposed from the outside: it inhabits people’s consciences, shapes their emotions and defines the very possibilities of existence.
Courage, the given word, loyalty
Other traditional values run through Kadaré’s work: the warrior’s courage celebrated in epics and heroic ballads; faithfulness to one’s given word (bessa), which binds people together absolutely; and loyalty to the clan and family, which takes precedence over all other attachments.
These values shape a particular masculine ideal: the paladin (a warrior-hero who defends his honour, honours his word and protects his family). This ideal, which is epic to say the least, still persists in the collective imagination.
V. Tradition and modernity: tensions and contradictions
The clash between the archaic and the modern
A central theme in Kadaré’s work lies in the violent confrontation between traditional structures and imposed modernity, be it Ottoman, fascist or communist. In Broken April, the city-dwelling couple travelling across the Plateau embody this modernity, which views ancestral customs with incomprehension.
Diana, the young woman, is outraged by the logic of the vendetta. She cannot understand how human beings can accept such a system. Her outsider’s perspective reveals the absurdity of the Kanun. But it also reveals her powerlessness in the face of the force of tradition, which persists despite the moral condemnation of modernity.
This confrontation raises fundamental anthropological questions: can traditional structures be judged by the standards of modern values? Does modernisation necessarily equate to emancipation? What do we lose when we abandon traditions?
The post-communist revival of traditions
The communist regime, which claimed to eradicate feudal values and create a ‘new man’, failed to completely eliminate the hold of customary codes – and certainly not that of the Kanun. On the contrary, Kadaré shows how traditional structures persist underground, and how the logic of honour and bloodline continues to operate despite repression. Political power may ban, repress and re-educate, but it cannot completely abolish cultural patterns passed down over centuries.
Kadaré’s work even suggests at times that communist totalitarianism has revived certain traditional ways of thinking. Denunciation is reminiscent of mechanisms of community control; state terror evokes institutionalised vendetta; the cult of the leader revives ancestral patriarchal figures.
But since the fall of communism in 1991, Albania has experienced a paradoxical resurgence of certain traditional practices, including vendetta. This phenomenon, which has taken observers by surprise, testifies to the vitality of deep-rooted anthropological structures. Even if it is more a case of a reinvention of traditions, the Kanun will remain a marker of identity – particularly in the face of the collapse of the state – and an option, serving as a resource or asset in contemporary conflicts.
VI. The universal dimension of Kadaré’s anthropology
From the particular to the universal
Whilst Kadaré meticulously documents the specific structures of traditional Albanian society, his work extends far beyond the confines of a particular ethnographic context. The questions he raises touch upon fundamental anthropology: what underpins social bonds? How do societies regulate violence? What is the individual’s place within collective structures?
In Kadaré’s work, the Albanian Kanun becomes a specific example of a more general anthropological structure: that of segmentary societies, vendetta systems and honour-based economies found in other cultures (the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, Japan, etc.).
This universalisation of the particular enables non-Albanian readers to recognise, beyond cultural differences, fundamental anthropological mechanisms that shed light on the human condition in general.
Foundational violence and sacrifice
Kadaré’s work repeatedly explores the theme of foundational violence and sacrifice. In The Three-Arched Bridge, the act of walling up a living being to ensure the bridge’s stability echoes beliefs widespread throughout the Balkans.
This theme of founding sacrifice echoes René Girard’s analyses of the role of the scapegoat in the constitution of the sacred and the social[6]. According to Kadaré, any collective endeavour requires sacrifice, and social order is founded on the ritualised elimination of victims.
This anthropological dimension lends his work a depth that transcends the Albanian context to examine the very foundations of any society.
The individual confronted by traditional structures
This is a central anthropological question that runs through Kadaré’s work. How much room for manoeuvre does the individual have in the face of the social structures that define them? Can they break free from them, transform them, or are they irrevocably trapped?
His characters often embody this tragic tension. They are well aware of the absurdity or injustice of these traditional codes, yet are unable to escape them. Gjorg, in *Broken April*, experiences this contradiction first-hand. He realises he is caught in a deadly cycle, yet cannot imagine escaping it.
This question extends beyond the Albanian context to touch upon philosophical anthropology. What is human freedom in an existence structured by social determinism?
VII. Conclusion: a literary anthropology of Albanian society
Ismaïl Kadaré’s work represents a major contribution to the anthropological understanding of traditional Albanian society. Although not a professional anthropologist, he has produced a literary body of literary documentation of exceptional richness on social structures, codes of honour, and family and tribal configurations.
This literary anthropology does not replace scientific ethnography, but complements it by exploring the existential and tragic dimension of social determinism. Kadaré shows how anthropological structures are not merely objects of study but forces that shape individual destinies, even determining who may live and who must die.
His reflection on the Kanun, in particular, offers an exceptional case study of the mechanisms regulating violence in segmentary societies, of the treacherous nature of honour, and of the tension between collective solidarity and individual sacrifice.
Beyond the Albanian context, Kadaré’s work raises universal anthropological questions about the foundations of social bonds, the weight of traditions, and whether individual emancipation is possible.
By accurately documenting traditional structures whilst revealing their costs, Kadaré achieves a dual purpose: preserving the memory of a vanishing world and lucidly criticising the forms of oppression it imposed. His literary anthropology thus remains faithful to a humanist principle that refuses to sacrifice (real) individuals to the abstractions of tradition or modernity.
[1] De Rapper, Gilles & Kadaré, Ismaïl. L’Albanie entre la légende et l’histoire [Albania between Legend & History]. Interview wth Ismaïl Kadaré, Arles, Actes Sud, 2004 https://www.fnac.com/a1533639/Gilles-Rapper-de-Ismail-Kadare
[2] Lenclud, Gérard. « Reprise de sang », Terrain, n° 66, mars https://journals.openedition.org/terrain/16091
[3] Durham, Mary Edith. High Albania, London, Edward Arnold, 1909.
[4] Elsie, Robert. A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology & Folk Culture, New York, New York University Press, 2000. https://www.amazon.fr/Dictionary-Albanian-Religion-Mythology-Culture/dp/0814722148
[5] Faye, Eric, Prométhée porte-feu, Edition Corti, 1991 https://www.fnac.com/a160388/Eric-Faye-Ismail-kadare
[6] Girard, René. La Violence et le Sacré [Violence & the Sacred], Paris, Grasset, 1972 https://www.grasset.fr/livre/la-violence-et-le-sacre-9782246000518/