Albanian Identities: Myth and History

Rating:
Summary: An Albania lover's delight
Review: I have always been fascinated with Albania. With lots of other things on my plate nowadays I haven't really had the time to read many books about this little country on the Adriatic. Once part of the Ottoman Empire, Albania declared its independence in 1912 only to find itself immediately beset by Greek, Montenegrin, and Serbian soldiers who all wanted a slice of the country for their own purposes. The total collapse of the Sublime Porte left Albanians scrambling for support from the Western European powers, but a majority Muslim population (a relic of Ottoman occupation) left many European leaders wary of supporting Albanian claims. Otto Von Bismarck sneeringly referred to Albania as a mere "geographic expression," and other powers seemed to implicitly support this view. World War I led to more troubles, more border partitions, and more problems with Balkan neighbors. The interwar period saw Albania experiment with western style government and monarchy under the leadership of Fan Noli and Ahmed Zogu, respectively. The Italians occupied the country in the late 1930s, leading to King Zog's ouster and clandestine warfare between Albania, Italy, and Germany. As the war ended, Enver Hoxha and his communist partisan forces triumphed over other Albanian liberation factions and took over the country. What followed was nearly fifty years of brutal Stalinist style communism. Today, Albania is working hard at restructuring their country.

"Albanian Identities: Myth and History" is a selection of essays about Albania taken from an academic conference held a few years ago. Included is research from well known Albanian scholars Bernd Fischer, Noel Malcolm, and Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers along with contributions from a range of other researchers looking at Albanian myth through the eyes of the historian, sociologist, and anthropologist. As Schwandner-Sievers writes in her introductory essay to the collection, a central goal of this book is to "trace the context of their (myths) production and transformations, and to show how local and individual variations stand in contrast to the homogenous national claims of Albanian myths." Yes, if you cannot tell from the above quotation, the articles in this book are quite scholarly. It isn't as bad as it sounds, as the vast majority of the contributions to this effort are highly readable. You should have a background in Albanian history, however, because the writers assume you know about Enver Hoxha, Naim Frasheri, the Megali Idea, Bektashism, and the League of Prizren among many other people and places. In fact, if you don't understand the implications of using the term "Kosovo" versus "Kosova," you probably shouldn't read this book until you have a few survey texts under your belt.

My favorite essays in the book include Bernd Fischer's "Perceptions and Reality in Twentieth Century Albanian Military Prowess," M.J. Alex Standish's "Enver Hoxha's Role in the Development of Socialist Albanian Myths," Mariella Pandolfi's "Myths and New Forms of Governance in Albania," and "Youth NGOs in Albania: Civil Society Development, Local Cultural Constructions of Democracy, and Strategies of Survival at Work" by Nicola Mai. Another excellent article written by Roderick Bailey, "Smoke Without Fire? Albania, SOE, and the Communist 'Conspiracy Theory,'" attempts to explode the myths surrounding the role that British operatives played in Hoxha's rise to power after WWII. Mariella Pandolfi's research showing how western humanitarian organizations subvert Albanian political, economic, and social institutions through a type of "supra colonialism" not only resonates deeply with anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of Western European/Albanian relations, but should provide a dozen or so doctoral candidates with enough potential research topics to last the length of their scholarly careers. M.J. Alex Standish compares Enver Hoxha's self-promoting propagandistic emanations with descriptions of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and finds more similarities than differences. It is unfortunate I cannot summarize every article in this outstanding book, but hopefully the few I touched on will give you an idea of the types of topics covered in "Albanian Identities: Myth and History."

These are the cream of the crop, but every article is articulate, informative, and massively interesting. Other essays address themes of myth in the writings of Ismail Kadare, conspiracy theories in Albanian newspapers, the myths of religion in the formation of an Albanian national identity, and even how Albanian-Americans incorporated their homeland myths into their new lives in the United States. Nearly every article in this book was the equivalent of waking up early on Christmas morning to see what Santa left under the tree. The book takes great pains to emphasize that these articles are not attacking Albanian culture or attempting to denigrate the beliefs of various peoples. Instead, these scholars want to discover how myth manipulation can encourage violence, economically exploit people, and promote ultra nationalistic-expansionist ideas. In this respect, one hopes that a similar tome exploring Serbian and Greek myths is in the works since those two powers have caused much distress to the Albanians over the years. After all, by adopting the definitions about myth in this book we can see that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic used the myths surrounding the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389 to launch an ethnic war against the Kosovar majority there in the 1990s.

"Albanian Identities: Myth and History" is an excellent addition to any Albania fan's library. About the only problem I had with the book as a whole is that the definition of myth is too narrow. Yes, myths do the things written about here, but they also fulfill a whole host of other important functions in people's lives. For example, many myths act as archetypes of virtuous behaviors such as bravery, honesty, charity, and the like. Is it possible to separate the various elements of myth? Can we look at only one, two, or three facets of myth while relegating the other parts into the background? Relevant questions, I think.