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The Albanian Other in Greek Literary Texts (1990-2010)
The example of Telemachus Kotsias
Images of the Balkans
Ninth Lesson
Lecturer: Petros Marazopoulos
petrosmarazopoulos@gmail.com
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Main Topics under examination
• The image of the Albanian Other in Greek literary and cinema texts
• Negotiating “Albanian primitivism”
• Rethinking the Hoxha regime
• A continuous search for a contemporary, European identity
• Comparing Greece with post-communist Albania, under cultural, political, social and
economic perspectives
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Telemachus Kotsias
• Born in Northern Epirus
• He devotes the greater part of his fiction to the Albanian area, as well as to the
interaction of Greece and Albania
• Kotsias grew up in Argyrokastro during the Hoxha regime, from which he was even
expelled for political reasons
• His novels cover an extremely long period of time: 1. the communist Albania of Hoxha
2. the post-communist Albania 3. the harsh reality for Albanian economic migrants in
Greece (after the opening of the borders in the 1990s).
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Telemachus Kotsias- Main aspects of his novels
• Albanian primitivism: perceived as a consequence of the totalitarian Hoxha regime
• Aspects of Albanian isolationism
• The desperate attempts of the Greek community to escape from ‘the socialist prison’
• Images of the Albanian economic immigrant to Greece (racist incidents, Greek superiority complex
and the Greek society)
• Historical novel, personal experiences and literature
• Images of communist Albania: police-ridden world, fear, act of secret services, arrest of innocent
citizens for trivial reasons, propaganda, general ‘mania for persecution and snitching’
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Kotsias’ characteristic novels
• The collection of short stories "The Midnight Incident"
• The novel "On the opposite shore“
• References to Albania's backwardness, relations with Greece and Europe, the
increasing fear of the authorities, the intense secrecy of the system, the terrible
persecutions, and the tireless propaganda of the Party
• “The Seven Windows”: a historical novel that follows the coming-of-age journey of a
group of students in socialist Albania
• Although the main characters belongs to the Greek minority, there is no lack of
Albanian characters
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‘The seven windows’
• The main character (George), although that at first seems to be attracted to the ideas
espoused by the communist regime, gradually deconstructs them and develops strong
tendency to escape
• The students do not initially realise the seriousness of the situation
• The regime shows its intentions
• The novel describes a world in which everyone’s life path is predetermined by the Party
• The “categories” described in the novel and the historical truth
• A suffocating, claustrophobic world
• The vision of the regime: the new type of man - 'Homo Socialisticus'
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Homo Socialisticus
• Defining ‘Homo Socialisticus’
• A new type of man, ready to sacrifice immediate goals and needs for the good of the
society
• Images of this new type of man in Kotsias’ work
• Descriptions of ‘a disciplined individual with complete loss of the personal element.
• The elements of ignorance, isolation and disillusionment,
• Narrating a ‘continuous decline’
• The gradual doubts even for aspects of human nature
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‘The seven windows’
"In the afternoon, a general assembly of the whole school. The enemies are back in the
spotlight. All categories of enemies.
[...] The political enemies, their descendants, the drifters, the conscious ones, the indifferent,
the careless, the uneducated, the immoral, the liberal, the conservative.
And they are hiding everywhere: beyond the borders of the country, among us, in the cities,
in the villages, in the construction sites, in the schools.
If the width of the pants exceeds twenty-four inches, therein lies an enemy; if the sideburns
fall below the permissible limit, therein lies the enemy; if the hair exceeds four inches, therein
lies the enemy.
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‘The seven windows’
"Maybe he was just corrupted and only interested in the carnal side of love. He read the
social problems and ideals of the heroes diagonally, just so as not to lose the continuity of
the reading. He was bored with them. [...]
These, he thought, were nothing but a false shell to justify the writing of the love scenes.
In the end, he saw himself as immoral, full of faults, unworthy of the revolutionary
atmosphere. And guilt plagued him.
Some people in society had established rules, and he didn't keep them, he broke them. He
felt perverted. And what would become of him?’’
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‘The seven windows’
▪ Albanian communism as a separating factor from the West
▪ Communist regimes as a separating factor from Greece
▪ Identifying Albania through the notions of primitivism, backwardness and ignorance for
the Western civilization
▪ The completely different Greek reality
▪ Greece as a symbol synonymous with progress, joy, sexual and ideological liberation and
carefreeness
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‘The seven windows’
• An important part of the narrative is also devoted to the experience of the Greek
minority in the People's Republic of Albania
• Kotsias gives an extremely harsh portrayal of the way of life of the Greeks in Hoxha’s
regime
• Constant persecution, destruction of Greek churches and books, arrests and torture for
no reason
• ‘The regime’s plan to eliminate the Greek minority.
• The character’s life in the army, the final decision to escape Albania and the horrifying
tortures
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‘The seven windows’: Images of Greece
‘’Once more, from the beginning. The young lady is lying naked in front of him. But not
here. In some distant sea, on the sandy beach. In Greece, in the endless light. Where
there are no revolutionary restrictions, as here. There, in absolute freedom. Carelessness.
Joy. Laughter''.
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‘The code of honor’
• Historical novel, post-Hoxha Albania
• The comparison between Greek and Albanian reality as the main narrative framework
• The coexistence of the two nations immediately after the opening of the borders
• The narrative reveals a fascinating and wild world and encompasses numerous motifs
which in Western thought have been associated with the Balkans
• The story: The novel's central character, Zef, his life in Greece as economic immigrants,
his love affair with his boss's daughter, and his obligation to travel to Albania to deliver
the first money he earns from his job to his father.
• The traditional obligations and Zef’s traval through the mysterious Albanian mountains
• An attempted robbery and a killing. The return to his village, the discovery of truth and
the escape to Greece
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Leke Dukagnini and the ‘Code’
• ‘Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit’ - The law
• Albanian society is presented as operating in all its aspects on a customary law, the "kanun".
• The origins of 'kanun' date back to the 15th century
• It is a customary law that has been passed down orally from generation to generation
• The ‘Kanun’ provides solutions for all possible and unlikely cases of dispute, substituting the law
• These solutions, on the one hand aim to satisfy the two disputing parties and, on the other
hand, are intended to safeguard the honor and 'besa' of the parties involved.
• The term ‘besa’ and its meaning in Albanian culture
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The code of Honor- main aspects of the novel
• Descriptions of the contemporary Albanian reality
• Comparisons with the corresponding Greek reality
• Modern Albania perceived as the evolution of socialist structures
• “A state of special conditions”
• The seek for a European identity
• The motif of Balkan, and here in particular Albanian primitivism
• Bravery, cruelty, besa and savagery: contradictory images of post-communist Albania
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The code of Honor- Passage for discussion
“And vigilante justice, its rules, were codified along with all the civil regulations, governing
marriages, inheritances, morals, penalties.
Even when the regime was imposed, people still kept to the old traditional rules, which is why in
those regions courts, lawsuits and civil suits were things almost unknown and moreover
reprehensible in the eyes of the people.
To seek the help of the state, the foreigner, the conqueror, in order to get justice was proof of
cowardice.
'Do not avenge yourself through the state' was the old principle’
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Images of contemporary Albania
• The Albanian socialist regime had forbidden the application of customary law
• The term ‘vendetta’ in Albanian and Balkan culture
• Since the fall of the regime, the phenomenon of the revival of a forgotten ‘vendetta’ has
been frequent
• The recurring motifs of bravery, cruelty, pride, ‘besa’ and robbery
• The beauty of Balkan nature
• Aspects of traditions
• The notion of believing in superstitions
• Authentic and to some extent stereotypical) 'Balkan’ images
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Depicting the Albanian society
• The connection with danger
• Robbery as a literary motif from 19th century
• Reproducing or deconstructing the stereotypical constructions regarding the Albanian Other?
• The female body as a ‘taboo’ for the young Albanian character, Zef
• The ‘open culture’ of the Hellene heroine
• The contemporary Albanian state and its relationship with European culture
• The visible need for Europeanisation
• Aspects of the ‘primitive’ Albanian society.
• The ancient code and the notion of honor
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Depicting the Albanian society
''Vigilantism and common law are prosecuted by modern laws, which no one can enforce in these
mountains.
Any government that tried to reconcile two different mentalities-or more properly to have the law
take over the application of the Code, modified and harmonized with modern standards-failed.
They said they would abolish the death penalty. If that were done, then the final end of the Code
would come: people, instead of being holed up in their homes, would be safer in prison, and
would be fed for free.
Or, conversely, then would come its true renaissance, as it would be the only way to get one's
blood back’’
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Πέτρος Μαραζόπουλος
petrosmarazopoulos@gmail.com
November 2024