Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The elusive dead

Who was Ndoc Gjetja? Viana Junior? What did Ella Braginskaya do? How would Eduard Khrutsky or Esma Agolli like to be remembered?

These are people I note in my sources who have passed on, and whose lives may be of interest to my readers. They are, in order, an Albanian poet, a Brazilian comic, a Russian translator, a Russian crime novelist, and an Albanian actress. Their obituary notices are in their native languages. Other evidence of their lives, in English, is miniscule or nonexistent.

I do have my own idiosyncratic criteria for inclusion on the site -- you can find it on a previous post. Another set I should have included is that information on them is available in English and that visual, audio or other documentation can be posted that will help the reader to understand them.

Are these people insignificant simply because we can't access perspectives on them? How many figures around the world escape our ethnocentric focus? Perhaps, if this site ever moves beyond being a hobby, the time and effort can be exerted to dig deeper and reveal talents, characters and actions that otherwise would remain unknown.

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