Greek Civilisation as a Theme of Dissidence in the Work of Ismail Kadare
Abstract
No country offers a better example of Europe’s fractured cultural memory than
Albania. Part of the ancient Greek cultural sphere and incorporated into the
Roman Empire, the speakers of Illyrian became separated from Europe in the
wake of the split of eastern and western churches. On the edge of Byzantine
civilization, the Albanians, unlike the Serbs and the Bulgars did not form a
kingdom or achieve a national church. At the point of proto-national consolida -
tion in the late 14th century, they were invaded by the Ottomans and subjected to
eastern despotism for the following five hundred years. This, at least, is one
version of Albania’s history. During the era of the Albanian dictatorship, the
writer and commentator, Ismail Kadare, consistently used a narrative of civilisa -
tional value with reference to ancient Greece as an Aesopian mode in which an
alternative, “European” civilization is implicitly recognized in opposition to the
national isolationism of the Hoxha regime.