Balkan Beauty, Balkan Blood: Modern Albanian Short Stories

by Robert Elsie (Editor)

Although Albanian literature dates back to the 1500s, creative prose in that nation is very much a twentieth-century phenomenon; and much as the early literature in Albanian was interrupted by Ottoman rule—and oppression—its later emergence was stymied and stunted by Stalinist politics and propaganda. What this volume documents is, then, a literature at once venerable and nascent, a tradition in the making, however deep its roots. In these stories representing the last three decades of Albanian writing—especially the burst of creativity in the newfound freedom of the 1990s—readers will encounter work that reflects the literary paradox of Eastern Europe in the late twentieth the startling originality of the new uneasily coupled with the strains of history; the sophistication and self-consciousness of late (or post-) modernity married to the simplicity of a literature first finding its voice; a refusal of political influence and pressure expressed through frankly political subject matter.

Albania's more established writers (including Dritëro Agolli, Ismail Kadare, Teodor Laço, and Eqrem Basha) appear here alongside newer talents (such as Ylljet Aliçka, Mimoza Ahmeti, Elivra Dones, Lindita Arapi, and Kim Mehmeti), providing English-speaking readers with an elucidating and entertaining overview of the recent history, and the future, of the nation's literature.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Elsie was a writer, translator, interpreter and specialist in Albanian studies. He studied at the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1972 with a diploma in Classical Studies and Linguistics. In the following years, he continued his post-graduate studies at the Free University of Berlin, at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and at the University of Paris IV: Paris-Sorbonne, at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland, and at the University of Bonn, where he finished his doctorate on Linguistics and Celtic Studies in 1978 at the Linguistics Institute.

From 1978 on, Elsie visited Albania several times with a group of students and professors from the University of Bonn. For several years, he also attended the International Seminar on Albanian Language, Literature and Culture, held in Prishtina, Kosovo. From 1982 to 1987, he worked for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bonn, and from 2002 to 2013 for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, in particular as an interpreter for several noted cases including the trial of Slobodan Milošević.

As a translator Robert Elsie offers the reader “a selection of songs from the best known cycle of Albanian epic verse”.

Reviews

[Floriana Ferri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have the memory of how this book made me feel. It's raw, emotional, and provided me with a new perspective about the traditional Albanian culture.

[Un Moine Vexé]

A solid collection of stories.

[Lura · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who wants an intro to contemporary Albanian literature, I think this is a nice collection, and of course Elsie does a great job as a translator. I didnt like all of the stories, some are really bad examples of albanian fiction, but then you have the essentials like Agolli and Mehmeti...