Castigat

Although derived from the Latin phrase Castigat ridendo mores, "it corrects customs by laughing at them," once displayed at the entrances of comedy theatres, the Castigat of this book's title is merely a pen name, under which Ardian Vehbiu had published some of these stories in the magazine Peizazhe të fjalës and under which they have become known, if not beloved, to the public. The need for this pseudonym "change" emerged especially after the publication — and republication — of the volume Gjashtëdhjetë e gjashtë rrëfimet e Maks Gjerazit, a collection of stories that had previously appeared, for the most part, in the same magazine under the pseudonym Maks Gjerazi. The new author, though openly fictional, would thus announce a new creative project, aiming to exploit — over the years — the tension between the naked narration of oral speech, as in fairy tales, anecdotes, aphorisms, microfiction, apologues, parables and fables, and nonfiction text, which often led the author to a genuinely poetic effect. Positioned between the author himself and the reader, the author-character Castigat would then serve as a suggestion and frame for certain, if not unique, forms of his adventure in fiction, in parallel with others that Vehbiu had explored in the novel Bolero as well as in the two volumes of Zotit Shyti; and which would make possible the re-foundation of the relationship between texts and readers, beyond the effect of reality so worn out and abused by classic realist prose.