Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.15291/SIC/2.6.LC.1

Tearing Down the Bridge between East and West: The (Re-)Writing of Albanian Identity in the Millosh Kopiliq Epic and Ismail Kadare’s The Siege

Duncan Lien ; Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi

Abstract

Albania lies at the crux of the doubly oriental identity of the Balkans on account of its Ottoman and Socialist past. This paper examines the role of the Ottoman Empire in literary works that engage with history in an effort to articulate a conception of Albanian identity as fundamentally European. The Kosovar epic ballads of Millosh Kopiliq and Ismail Kadare’s novel The Siege both portray the medieval conflicts between Albanians and Ottomans. Yet the works do not simply assert the cultural superiority of Albanians in the face of “oriental barbarism”. Instead, the Ottomans serve to dramatize the ambiguous cultural and geographical positioning of Kosovo and Albania. Using Lucien Goldmann’s method of genetic structuralism, this study understands the particular identity articulated in each text as a response to the geographical, cultural and political environment of its author.

Keywords

identity; nationalism; Kadare; Albania; Kosovo; orientalism; Ottoman Empire; Millosh Kopiliq

Hrčak ID:

171960

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/171960

Publication date:

6.6.2016.

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