HISTORY OF ADYGHE LITERATURE III

About the Book

This book History of Adyghe Literature III is the continuation of the preceding volumes I and II. It describes and analyzes the superb literary works our Adyghe writers produced in the Soviet Union, despite the complex and harsh conditions of Party regulations, strict frameworks of “conflict-free theory,” and the constant insistence of Party leaders that writers should write only on the themes of the Revolution, collective farm, the Great Patriotic War, and great Party leaders. Regardless of all these rigid conditions, risking their own personal lives, Adyghe writers have succeeded to produce great literary works in all the literary genres, especially the great novel. These books present these great works in the form of literary criticism and book reviews. I am presenting them to English readers in their language, hoping they will find them very interesting and highly informative.

About the Author

Kadir I. Natho was born in 1927 in Hatramtook, Anapa region, Caucasus. He became a refugee in 1943; survived World War II, escaped the First and Second Forced Repatriations to the Soviet Union in 1945 and 1947 from Austria and Italy, respectively; lived in various European countries; and moved to Jordan in 1948. He emigrated from Amman to the United States in 1956 and settled in New York City in 1959. He graduated from the School of American Journalism and Henry George School of Social Science (science of political economy), studied English literature, and took writing courses. His short stories were translated into Turkish and published in Kuzey Kafkasya, one of which was included in the Anthology of the Short Stories of the Caucasus in Turkey. He published a collection of his short stories, Old and New Tales of the Caucasus, in 1969, and a novel, Nicholas and Nadiusha, in 1978, which was translated and published in Russian and Circassian, in Maikop in 1992 and 1993 under the titles of Otchuzhdionyie and Tsif Lyiekher (Outcasts). A part of this novel was also translated in Kabardian and published in a series in the newspaper Adyghe Psale and in the literary magazine Oshhamakho (Elbrus) in 2007 and was included in the Selections of Literature for Reading for eleventh graders in 2013. He wrote a three-act play, Medea, in Circassian, for the State Theater of the Republic of Adyghe, the premiere of which was held in Maikop on April 28–29, 2009, which was well received even by the Russians. It was performed again and again in Maikop, Krasnodar, Nalchik, and Moscow and received first prize in the North Caucasian Drama Festival in Maikop. His Old and New Tales of the Caucasus was included in the student literature of the State University of Adyghey in 2007. He published Circassian History in 2009, which was translated in Turkish, Arabic, and Russian and published in Maikop, Republic of Adyghey; Ankara, Turkey; and in Amman, Jordan, and was translated in Kabardian, in Cherkessk in 2014. He published Memoirs in 2010, which was published in Turkish in Turkey in May 2014 and translated in Russian in Maikop. He translated and published Adighe Khabze, Custom and Traditions, by Professor Seraby Mafedzev and published Grand Abduction in 2017, based on the fact that Circassians had abducted the daughter of General Zass during the Russo-Caucassian War (1786–1864) and now has submitted for publishing the translation of the first volume of History of Adyghe Literature. He acquired G. A. Press in New York City, and, in the 1960s, published for years books and periodicals for Russian and Ukrainian authors and organizations, and his own bilingual magazine, the Circassian Star, in English and Circassian, in order to disseminate Circassian history, culture, and folklore and to revive the national consciousness of the Circassian diaspora. He devoted his time and energy to helping the Circassian community in the United States; was chairman of the Permanent Council of the Circassian Benevolent Association in Wayne, New Jersey (1987–1991); was president of the CBA (1991–1998); and was a delegate of the CBA in the Congress of the International Circassian Association in Nalchik (1991 and 2000), in Maikop (1993), in Cherkessk (1996), and in Krasnodar (1998). He organized the Institute of Circassian Studies as a branch of the CBA for the study of Circassian history, culture, and folklore and translated the books Heroic Epos, NARTS and Its Genesis, by Asker Gadagatl.