Contemporary Albanian Literature in Kosovo (Now and Here)

Abstract

Albanian literature written from the 1940s to the present day can be called contempo-rary Albanian literature, or in other words, World Literature after the Second World War. The allowed literature was the only method of socialist realism, which was ideol-ogized and politicized, i.e. subject to communist ideology and politics. It was not free literature, but entirely engaged in the service of socialism and communism. The meth-od of socialist realism had some very narrow and binding criteria for all those who thought of publishing their works. Such were the communist members, the positive hero and the struggle against foreign middle-class influences. In such a situation, we can say that it was purely subject to ideology and communist politics. Due to its very narrow scheme, most of the literary work written during this period had its own value and function during the period of the communist system. This type of literature form some writers was accepted with conviction, while others were used to compromise to publish their works. Although under very strict censure, many important works were published which could have been contrary to socialist realism. Such works were with an indirect expression or with a subtext, often in symbolic and allegorical forms. These works consist of some of the greatest values of contemporary Albanian literature, the first and the foremost authors of this kind of literature, their best works, publishers, and their echoes in the language of translation.