In lieu of a conclusion

If one were to ask what the main achievement of Albanian written culture has been over the last few decades, the reply would certainly be, “Poetry, here, there and everywhere!” Verse collections still account for over fifty per cent of literary output in all the major centres of Albanian-language publishing: Tirana, Prishtina, Skopje, Shkodra and Tetova. Even under the harsh conditions of a free market economy in an underdeveloped region, Albanian poetry has managed to survive and maintain its dynamism.

When impoverished and ill-educated Albanian emigrants and refugees gather in Western Europe in their often dingy and always smoke-filled clubs, it is more often than not that they come together for a poetry reading. It is here that the soul of the Albanian nation finds its expression. Readable Albanian prose is admittedly a recent phenomenon and drama is still a very much neglected genre, but the Albanians have always opened their hearts spontaneously to lyrics.

Modern Albanian literature, both in Albania and in Kosova, is now, for the first time, free to evolve and go its own way. Closer contacts with the works of other literatures, albeit in often shabby translations, have given rise to some initial copying of styles and themes, but in the long run, such influence can only serve to enrich creative writing in Albanian itself.

Secondly, the two halves of the Albanian nation, Kosova and Albania, are now free to meet and mingle. Throughout the decades of the Hoxha dictatorship, and indeed up to the final months of Serb rule in Kosova, the border between the two countries was kept sealed by their respective rulers. Rare were those who crossed it without suffering terrible political repercussions. The Berlin Wall between the two halves of Germany was, in comparison, a sieve. The result of this imposed separation was the rise of two very different Albanian cultures and two different Albanian literatures.

Since 1997, the two halves of the nation have been getting to know one another, and getting used to one another. It has not been easy for the population at large and many misunderstandings have arisen, but the exchange of experience has proved particularly
broadening and fruitful for Albanian writers on both sides of the border. For the first time, they have become members of one common literary culture, a culture which is now twice as large as and much more diverse than the tiny one they knew.

Courtesy of Albanologist Dr.Robert Elsie from his Article
Albanian literature: an overview of its history and development.
in: Österreichische Osthefte, Vienna, 45, 1-2 (2003), p. 243-276.
Source: http://www.elsie.de/pdf/articles/A2003AlbLitOsthefte.pdf