First published in Italian and translated into English by Clarissa Botsford, Albanian author Elvira Dones’s novel Sworn Virgin (2007) follows Hana Doda, a young woman who has taken on a male social identity as a “sworn virgin,” according to the traditional laws of northern Albania. After 15 years of living as Mark Doda, Hana emigrates to the US, where she attempts to re-discover the femininity she left behind. The novel opens in 2001, on a flight from Tirana, Albania to Washington, DC. To pass the time, American journalist Patrick O’Connor strikes up a conversation with his neighbor in the next seat, Mark Doda, a shepherd from the rural mountain village of Rrnajë. Mark has never left Albania before and has scarcely spent much time outside his tiny village. However, he intrigues Patrick by showing some flashes of sophistication and worldliness. Not only does Mark speak English—unusual enough for an Albanian shepherd—he writes poetry and seems to know a surprising amount about literature. In other ways, too, he is an unusual man. He is very small, and his suit is ill-fitting in some indefinable way. As they part at Dulles Airport, Patrick hands over his card and insists that Mark call him. He is sure the shepherd is going to need some help adjusting. We follow Mark to the apartment where her cousin Lila lives with her husband, Shtefën and their teenage daughter, Jonida, who thinks her uncle Mark is “the funniest guy I’ve ever met.” Lila has invited some other immigrants from Rrnajë to welcome her cousin. After a brief celebration, Lila and Mark stay up to talk about the past. Fifteen years ago, Lila came to stay with Mark in Rrnajë—only, then, Mark was Hana, a 20-year-old woman, and a literature student at university in Tirana. Hana was back in Rrnajë to care for her uncle Gjergj, dying of cancer. That was the night Hana became Mark. The novel moves back and forth between the present moment in America and the Albanian past. For ease of comprehension, the novel’s story is presented chronologically here. From a young age, Hana was raised by her uncle Gjergj and his wife, Katrina, after her parents were killed in a car crash. With their encouragement, she moved away from Rrnajë for the first time to study literature. She began to write poetry, and for the first time overcame her conservative upbringing to admit an interest in boys. In her twentieth year, she learned that Gjergj was ill, and she returned to see him. Under the stress of caring for her husband, Katrina’s heart failed, and Hana was forced to choose between her studies and tending to her dying uncle. After missing an important examination, she returned to the university to plead to be allowed to return after a break, but she was refused permission. The femininity Hana had begun to explore at university proves a liability in Rrnajë. To collect her uncle’s prescriptions, she must hitch-hike into the city, a long journey on which she is vulnerable, so vulnerable that she carries a knife. Meanwhile, Hana is struck to the heart by her dying uncle’s grief for the lost traditions of their region. A third pressure atop these two finally pushes Hana into a sudden impulsive decision. Gjorgj offers to arrange a marriage of convenience for Hana so that she will not be left alone after his death. Unwilling to marry a man she does not love, Hana decides instead to become a “sworn virgin,” invoking one of the ancient oral laws of northern Albania. A sworn virgin is a woman who takes it upon herself to assume the role of a man in a family deprived of male heirs. She must commit to a life of celibacy, and thenceforward she dresses as a man, is treated as a man by other men, and enjoys the rights of a man. She can work, drink, smoke, and travel freely. While Lila, permed like a “poodle,” looks on in astonishment, Hana rifles through her uncle’s clothes to find a suitable male outfit. She presents herself to the dying man in male garb, and Gjorgj solemnly presents her with the shotgun which has been passed down through six generations of the family’s menfolk. From now on she would be known as Mark. Gjorgj dies, and Mark takes over his smallholding, his home, and his work, becoming a weathered shepherd with a strong stomach for booze. A virtual recluse, Mark spends his time chain-smoking and working on his Chinese pick-up truck. During these years, Mark casts a jaded eye over Albanian life as the country transitions out of communism. Now, in America, Mark wonders who he will be next. Lila strongly presses him to resume his feminine identity, but Mark is not sure he knows how to do this. Meanwhile, Lila’s motives are unconvincing; she believes that only appearing “as normal as possible” will enable Mark to secure an American employer. It is Lila’s daughter, Jonida, who prompts Mark to wonder about the kinds of femininity that might be possible here. Further encouragement comes from another source. Mark calls Patrick and begins to unfold his story to the journalist. As they grow closer, Mark—now going once more by Hana—begins to feel a sexual and romantic attraction to him. Hana experiments with women’s clothes and make-up, agonizingly beginning to embrace her female selfhood. From time to time she collapses into the refuge of masculinity, usually in the form of heavy drinking. But gradually she comes to feel comfortable in her skin. She secures a job, and then a better one, and soon she can move out of Lila’s apartment. Now she is free to decide how she should be without pressure from her cousin. Getting in touch again with the literature student she once was, she resumes writing poetry. Sex remains a barrier. Hana had all but convinced herself she would never have sex. Finally, with help from the understanding Patrick—who reciprocates her attraction—Hana overcomes her sworn virginity.

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Elvira Dones

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