New Textbook Extends Gjekë Marinaj's Role in World Literature Diversity

San Diego, CA, July 15, 2022 --(PR.com)-- On May 24, 2022, Turkistan, Kazakhstan-based Ahmet Yesevi University celebrated the release of a new textbook entitled, "Embracing the Moonlight: The Art of Gjekë Marinaj's Works." The director of Mundus Artium Press and an Albanian-American poet, writer, translator and literary critic based in the Dallas metro area, Marinaj attended the book's release ceremony at the university as part of his concurrent multi-nation cultural program in Central Asia and Turkey.

The textbook's authors note that in the wake of their experience with "translations of the poems of the American poet Dr. Gjeke Marinaj, a PhD graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas and an expert scholar, we are glad that another masterpiece of world literature speaks the Kazakh reader's native language."

The authors of "Embracing the Moonlight" are Dosbol Islam, an associate professor at the department of Kazakh philology, and Alima Pashanova, an active advocate for Kazakh literature. At the university's event, vice-rector Askar Turganbayev and library director Meruert Absemetova presented the book and spoke about its themes.

Acclaiming Marinaj as "one of the world's most important literary figures," "Embracing the Moonlight" continues the project "100 New Textbooks in the Kazakh Language," launched in 2017 by the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev under the auspices of the state program "Spiritual Revival." The textbook has received approval for inclusion in the Central Asian nation's higher education curriculums for applicants and students through the doctoral level.

"Embracing the Moonlight" features the first Kazakh translation of Dr. Marinaj's literary work. Textbook authors D. Islam and A. Pashanova, as well as Zhibek Iskakova, the editor of "Wonderful Kazakhstan-2050" magazine, have collaborated to render Kazakh versions of a comprehensive selection drawn from all of Marinaj's volumes of poetry. Accompanying literary analysis provided by the authors and university students studies the poems and compares them with works by major Kazakh poets as a way to convey Marinaj's "philosophical worldview to the Kazakh reader." Each chapter contains quizzes and reflective writing assignments.

Describing Dr. Marinaj as "working tirelessly to strengthen friendly relations with writers in world and international literature, as well as to develop his creativity," "Embracing the Moonlight" applies the poet's ideals of literature-based cultural diplomacy to the Kazakh context in the period since the establishment of an independent Republic of Kazakhstan in 1991.

Integral to these ideals is the poet's Protonism Theory, a form of literary criticism that seeks to promote international understanding. As outlined by Islam and Pashanova, Protonism provides a standpoint for perceiving the interconnectedness of Kazakh and world literature. The book encourages students to utilize Protonism Theory in each related assignment throughout the semester.

Approaching Dr. Marinaj's "literary output as a type of communication marked by an individualistically coherent form of metaphorical thought," "Embracing the Moonlight" finds the poet's "ideas and conceptual decisions" in agreement with the fundamentals of independent Kazakh literature's creative evolution. Islam and Pashanova view Marinaj's literary thought as reflecting national origins as well as a dialogue with major trends in world literature.

Similarly, as the authors note, contemporary Kazakh literature has assimilated modernist movements such as symbolism, impressionism, expression and surrealism. The authors see Marinaj's Protonism as a touchstone for interpreting the unifying undercurrents present in the interplay of tradition and innovation in Kazakh culture, much as in any national culture that attains its own world cultural identity.

"Embracing the Moonlight" draws parallels between Marinaj and Kazakh authors, including a comparison of Marinaj's Albanian "Horses" and pioneering Kazakh writer Saken Seifullin's "Red Horse," both well-known poems of social criticism with correspondences on the level of imagery and philosophical critique of the unjust suppression of authentic cultural and ethical values. The book also likens Marinaj's style to that of the beloved Kazakh author Magzhan Zhumabayev.

Dr. Marinaj's formulation of Protonism Theory arose as a reaction to volatility in the Balkan literary environment, impacted by the post-Communist renewed politicization of literature at the expense of artistic concerns. The detailed description of the poet's signature theory in "Embracing the Moonlight" aims to give Kazakh readers a critical tool to perceive and nurture their own literature within a broader context of supporting the robustly inclusive development of national culture.

The Protonism Theory of Dr. Gjekë Marinaj is currently taught in several major European and Asian universities, including in the People's Republic of China, whose Ministry of Education has made the theory a part of its graduate academic programs.

Dr. Marinaj, nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, has received many major honors, including South Korea's Changwon KC International Literary Prize.