Anthropological References to Honour, Hospitality, and Besa (Word of Honour) in the novel ‘Dead River’ by Jakov Xoxa

Abstract

As per complex creative processes and pre-textual literary references, Xoxa’s works are based on myths, folklore and the collective conscience of the people through the centuries. According to Levi-Strauss, the myth, differently from other linguistic phenomena, belongs to both the Ferdinand de Saussure categories of language - langue and parole; thus, it is both a historic portrayal of the past, being diachronic and irreversible in time, and it is also a tool for explaining the present and the future, being synchronic and reversible in time, evocative of past memories; this helps illustrate the relation between the two dimensions: the diachronic and the synchronic. Referring to the symbolism hidden in the “Dead River/Lumi i vdekur”, which appears as a legend pointing to the animism of nature, we can perceive authentic relations of language and style by combining the portraying of life as a philosophy of the eternal relationship between nature and human beings. In addition, by following the line of argument that in the same way as God loves human beings he also takes revenge on them, we see the same thing happening by way of analogy between man and animals, theirs being an invisible connection for better or for worse.