Culture
The cultural events of Albania present traits common to many countries of the Balkan area that have passed from centuries of Ottoman domination to a short period of independence, which was then followed by decades of isolation in the socialist bloc. During the Ottoman domination, the Albanian culture was almost exclusively oral, and was thematically linked to the pastoral and agricultural traditions of the region; in the first decades of the twentieth century, on the other hand, an independent literature was born more akin both for formal strategies and for interests to European culture. In the long years of the regime, the Albanian culture, contradicting its historical and geographical vocation as a country open to trade with the Mediterranean, had taken refuge in the celebration of the glories of the socialist regime, maintaining relations only with other countries of the eastern bloc, in particular with Mao’s China. A few foreign intellectuals were allowed to visit Albania, and a very few privileged Albanians were allowed to go abroad. The state of segregation, not only mental, in which some of the most famous dissident poets and writers found themselves and the flat elaboration of the official culture of the canons of socialist realism had transformed the Albanian cultural panorama into a horizon of little international interest. After the dramatic end of the regime, the chaotic situation of the early years and the extreme poverty of the new state did not favor the resumption of an organized intellectual activity; in particular, theatrical and musical culture have suffered, both penalized by the lack of funding and structures. Many of the currently most significant intellectuals of Albanian culture belong to the country’s diaspora, and have long since emigrated to other Balkan or European nations. University seat in Albania is the capital: the university of Tirana, founded in 1957, was at the center of the protests that led to the fall of the Stalinist regime. In the city there is also a Polytechnic. Tirana is undoubtedly the most active cultural center, and in recent years it has given birth to some wide-ranging initiatives that attract European and other artists to the capital: the Tirana Film Festival, specialized in short films and documentaries, and an international art review contemporary, TiranaBiennale3, which promotes the meeting between the main Albanian artists and the great international art circuit, hosting installations and specially commissioned works in several locations in the capital. L’ UNESCO has registered two locations in Albania among the protected sites as a World Heritage Site: the fortifications of Gjirokaster, an Ottoman city in the south of the country, built starting from the century. XIII (registered in 2005), and the ruins of ancient Butrint, a Greek and then Roman colony that experienced great prosperity during the Byzantine era (registered in 1992).
Literature
As a country located in Europe according to searchforpublicschools.com, Albanian literature up to 1990 shows evident signs of thematic homologation attributable to political decisions, which was echoed by the uncritical action of the League of Writers and Artists which has been based in Tirana since 1945. For the prose too, the decades following the collapse of the dictatorship led both to an unexpected cultural opening towards the outside world and to greater freedom of expression. New authors then joined the veteran Kadaré, writers who have gradually abandoned the vacuous triumphalism of fiction of the last years of the regime, among which we remember above all Kasëm Trebeshina (b.1926), who began to publish short stories and novels, written in ‘span of a lifetime, only after 1991; Fatos Kongoli (b. 1943), mathematician, one of the most authoritative and original storytellers of the last decades; Teodor Keko (1958-2002), also a journalist and playwright; Stefan Çapalicu (b.1965), poet and novelist. Among the writers, Elvira Dones (b.1960), author of the novel, deserves a mention written in a lifetime, only after 1991; Fatos Kongoli (b. 1943), mathematician, one of the most authoritative and original storytellers of the last decades; Teodor Keko (1958-2002), also a journalist and playwright; Stefan Çapalicu (b.1965), poet and novelist. Among the writers, Elvira Dones (b.1960), author of the novel, deserves a mention written in a lifetime, only after 1991; Fatos Kongoli (b. 1943), mathematician, one of the most authoritative and original storytellers of the last decades; Teodor Keko (1958-2002), also a journalist and playwright; Stefan Çapalicu (b.1965), poet and novelist. Among the writers, Elvira Dones (b.1960), author of the novel, deserves a mention Burnt Sun (2001), dedicated to the drama of those who were overwhelmed by the collapse of the Balkan regimes, and from which a film by the director Fatmir Koçi (2004) was made. We also remember the poet Visar Zhiti (b.1957) and Anilda Ibrahimi (b. 1972). Finally, the general picture is completed with the works of writers belonging to the neighboring Albanian Autonomous Province of Kosovo, currently included in the State of Serbia and Montenegro. Among the Kosovar authors in the Albanian language stand out Azem Shkreli (1938-1997), a refined cantor who introduced the accents and images of European hermeticism into Albanian Kosovar poetry, and Ali Podrimja (b.1942).
