Contemporary Albanian Literature in Kosovo (Now and Here)

Author(s):  
Vjollca Dibra Ibrahimi ◽  
Sejdi Sejdiu

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.

Costume ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-96
Author(s):  
Marta Kargól

In 1932, Nellie van Rijsoort (1910–1996), the Dutch embroidery maker and designer, opened her atelier in Rotterdam. Among her clients were prestigious fashion stores in the Netherlands as well as wealthy middle-class customers. After the Second World War, van Rijsoort left Rotterdam and continued her career in Melbourne in the rapidly developing fashion network of Australia. Today, samples of embroidered fabrics and fashion drawings by Nellie van Rijsoort are part of the collections of the Museum Rotterdam and the National Trust of Australia in Melbourne. These collections provide insight into half a century of history of embroidered fabrics. This article illustrates the largely forgotten career of the embroidery designer. The first part of the article outlines the position and meaning of van Rijsoort's atelier in the fashion networks of the Netherlands and Australia, while the second part provides an analysis of embroidery samples and drawings, which reveal the place and function of embroideries as dress decorations.


Literary Fact ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 314-332
Author(s):  
Michela Venditti

The article is a introduction to the publication of the minutes of the meetings of the Russian lodge "Northern Star" in Paris, concerning the discussion on the admission of women to freemasonry. The proposed archival materials, deposited in the National Library of France in Paris, date back to 1945 and 1948. The women's issue became more relevant after the Second World War due to the fact that Masonic lodges had to recover and recruit new adherents. The article offers a brief overview of the women's issue in the history of Freemasonry in general, and in the Russian emigrant environment in particular. One of the founders of the North Star lodge, M. Osorgin, spoke out in the 1930s against the admission of women. In the discussions of the 1940s, the Masonic brothers repeat his opinion almost literally. Women's participation in Freemasonry is rejected using either gender or social arguments. Russian Freemasons mostly cite gender reasons: women have no place in Freemasonry because they are not men. Freemasonry, according to Osorgin, is a cult of the male creative principle, which is not peculiar to women. Discussions about the women's issue among Russian emigrant Freemasons are also an important source for studying their literary work; in particular, the post-war literary works of Gaito Gazdanov are closely connected with the Masonic ideology.


Author(s):  
H. E. Chehabi

This chapter traces the formation of a modern middle class that emerged as a result of Reza Shah's rigorous modernization policies in the 1920s and 1930s. The state expanded the educational system and bureaucracy, reaching down from the court to the village level. At the same time, it fostered lifestyles and consumption patterns modeled on those of Europe, which this new and increasingly secular middle class embraced, setting it apart from the rest of society. Given its reliance on state employment, this was not a bourgeoisie stricto sensu. This new middle class existed next to the traditional mercantile elite, which was centered on the bazaar and closely allied to the clergy. In the 1920s, however, many Iranian businessmen adopted a middle-class lifestyle, and, as a consequence, a modern business bourgeoisie gradually emerged that was to some extent a link between the traditional mercantile elite centered on the bazaar and the modern middle class.


Author(s):  
Martin Conway

This chapter focuses on the consumption of democracy. What happened in the roughly twenty-five-year period from the end of the Second World War to the late 1960s is perhaps best regarded as a process of gradual acculturation. At different speeds and by different paths, a large majority of Western Europeans came to feel at home in democracy, and began to practise democracy for themselves. However, the new democracies were more equal in their formal structures than in their social reality. The reassertion of boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, and age, after the more fluid and often chaotic experiences of the war years, was reinforced by the evolving but persistent inequalities of social class. Western Europe emphatically remained a class society after 1945. The rapid economic growth that occurred during the post-war years generated new forms of affluence, but these were distributed in ways that reinforced pre-existing class divisions. In particular, the post-war years witnessed a resurgence in the fortunes of the middle class. Whether assessed in terms of its material prosperity, its influence within and over government, or its wider social and cultural ascendancy, the middle class was the dominant social class of the post-war era.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ann Clark ◽  
B. R. Christie ◽  
S. F. Weise

Contemporary agricultural research is founded upon short-term controlled studies to examine, screen, and rank performance of genetic improvements or managerial processes. This approach has performed admirably in support of the resource-intensive, high-yield paradigm which has guided agricultural development since the second World War. Changes to this paradigm, which may occur in response to economic, societal, or environmental issues, may require increased emphasis on farm-based, system-oriented research to complement the experiment-station-based research which has proven so successful to date. Corresponding changes to the form, structure, intent, and ultimately, the beneficiaries of agricultural research are discussed. Key words: Long-term research, perennial forages, high-yield agriculture, on-farm research, fanning systems research, profitability, genotype × environment interactions, stability, adaptability


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-161
Author(s):  
ELENA MARUSHIAKOVA ◽  
VESSELIN POPOV

This article traces the beginning of Romani literature. It focuses on the work of Alexander Germano in the context of the history of a unique Romani literacy project developed in the USSR before the Second World War. It shows the peculiarity of the Soviet Romani literature and in particular the personal activities and contributions of Germano, the man considered the progenitor of contemporary Romani literature (with works in all three main genres of literature: poetry, prose, and drama). The study is based on a number of years of archival work in a variety of archives in the Russian Federation and to a great extent in Alexander Germano’s personal archive, preserved in the town of Orel (Russian Federation). The documents studied allow us to clarify the blurred spots in his biography, to reveal his ethnic background and identity, and to highlight the reason for the success of the Romani literary project. The example of Germano shows that the beginning of a national literature depends on the significance and public impact of the literary work of a particular author, and is not necessarily related to the author’s ethnic origin and identity.


Author(s):  
Cecilia Bello Minciacchi

The essay presents and analyses the film criticism articles written by Paola Masino for the new edition of the Venice Film Festival after the Second World War. The articles, which appeared in the Gazzetta d’Italia between August 31 and September 19, 1946, were not later collected or republished. These are rare materials, never studied before, found among the documents of the Fondo Paola Masino kept at the Archivio del Novecento, Sapienza University of Rome. Other significant and useful information to understand Masino’s critical perspective on cinema emerges from the letters sent from Venice to family members. The analysis of the articles highlights in Paola Masino a lively intellectual curiosity and great precision in aesthetic judgments, in addition to a peculiar sensitivity to chromatic values, and an ethical attention to the political perspective of film directors and to the recent tragedies of war and partisan resistance in Italy. Among the most interesting data emerged from these articles, there are some theoretical reflections on aesthetic principles valid not only for cinema, but for all the arts, including the narrative and the literary work of the same Paola Masino.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
Alin Goron

The Communist ideology called for the denial of Christianity as a form of "mysticism" filled with "superstitions", but particularly as one of the factors that impeded social, economic and cultural progress. Scientific socialism, however, was meant to awaken class consciousness, setting Romanian society on a path towards true modernity. Thus a real battle ensued on the ideological front between two entities, the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, arising from the divide between traditional religious beliefs and atheist Marxism. The actions of the authorities against religious propaganda included both practical measures, which involved activities that filled the free time of the villagers, but also coercive measures consisting in political pressure or arrests. In spite of the communist regime's efforts to impose its own cultural agenda, the effects were long overdue, with rather modest results. Romania's forced development was faced with some inherent problems of the process of modernization and industrialization. The forced imposition of a foreign ideology to a conservative Eastern European area relying on obsolete mindsets, a society where 80% of the population lived in rural areas as of the end of the Second World War, required a longer period of time than the regime had originally planned.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-146
Author(s):  
Karin Wolgast

Abstract Introducing life and work of Janina Katz, the article undertakes an analysis and interpretation of her second novel, the autofictional Putska. Born on the second of March 1939, Katz belonged to a renowned Jewish family with numerous members, of whom, however, only her mother and she survived the Second World War. Their extraordinary family history may be traced in practically all of Katz’ writings, as can her Jewish cultural heritage. The novel Putska is no exception. Its composition, characters and the image it gives of life in Cracow are examined in order to make understandable the protagonist’s decision to exile herself from Poland and migrate to Denmark, much like the author herself. 1969, having fled from that revival of anti-Semite harassment which was launched by the political leadership of socialist Poland, Katz was granted asylum in Denmark, where she soon learned the language to a perfection which enabled her to unfold a widely acknowledged literary work which does not cease to speak of her unique life experience. Central perspectives on her life and work include migration, autobiography, Jewishness and social and cultural history of Poland.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (1 Zeszyt specjalny) ◽  
pp. 11-31
Author(s):  
Lia Fava Guzzetta

This article is a kind of journey through the poetic work of Karol Wojtyła / John Paul II – a wandering that is ascetic, yet extremely rich – in the footsteps of an outsider, a person free from our native historical and cultural context, and hence open to the unlimited possibilities of interpretation. This work shows the universal character of Karol Wojtyła’s poetic output; it emphasises new elements in the perception of that poetry, while showing the meaning of the verses in a different light, verses still relevant and invariably addressed to man, who is also (and maybe especially) struggling with eternal dilemmas today. The early literary works already contained two profound dimensions: the Slavic soul and intellectual classicism, which would also become a feature of John Paul II’s talent for ecumenical communication and his theological vision of the Church. In the transition from youthful sonnets to hymns, we can notice not only the stylistic development and depth of the message, but, above all, a move towards conscious religiousness, contemplation, towards the priesthood, a move which was born in the very dramatic time of the Second World War. As a priest, on the other hand, his poetic choices were marked by a desire to understand the condition of man and to see God’s love for His creation. This contemplation becomes increasingly more like a prayer, and dialogue is born out of prayer. Karol Wojtyła’s literary work appears as a story about his own inner experience and reveals a spiritual anthropology.


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