The other in the Albanian historical novel

• Author: Myrvete Dreshaj - Baliu
• Pages: 73-78

Vol. 4 No. 1

March, 2018

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

73

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

The other in the Albanian historical novel

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Myrvete Dreshaj – Baliu

Abstract

Main aim of this study is to identify the refl ective dimension of the other in relation to the self

in the Albanian historical novel. Wri en over a longer period of time (in comparison to the

other types), the Albanian historical novel, only during the recent decades has presented other

views of redimensioning the other within novels. Regardless of the writing period, pa ern, or

style, in the Albanian historical novel, the concept on the other generally preserves a national

dimension, or the geo-cultural spirit of its tradition.

Keywords: novel, other, self, myth, demonization, hero, identity, language.

Introduction

There are many reasons why the other in the Albanian historical novel is placed at

the focus of this research, among which we maymention: the s cope of this discussion

encompassinga one-century writing period; the mutual infl uence and interrelationship

with other literary genres and types, as a condition for the discussion of this topic; the

dimension of its persistence and refl ection in the global modern world; as well as the

possibilities o ered by the novel for the complete display of the refl ection regarding

the other, the semantic structure, the social and historical totality of time, space and

universal components of the worlds.

From the beginning of my endeavor with this research topic, I was intrigued by the

word the other, which does not appear in the historic and literary dictionaries as a term or

notion, and is even absent from historic and literary text, and yet is interwoven within

them. As a ma er of face, the other, a noun phrase that coincides with the meaning

of an indefi nite pronoun is neither a symbol nor a metaphor that would produce a

stylistic e ect, and yet, in the works of recent years is sometimes given referential,

and even paradigmatic dimensions upon which is built a considerable amount of

theoretical elaboration, which follows the paradigmatic predisposition of the era of

globalization. As such, the other claims to raise at the level of a notion or reference,

due to its presence in other literary contexts in the course of historical development

of literature and its criticism, within the literary and aesthetic components of certain

genres and types, but mostly on a thematic level, if not endowed with other historic,

ethnographical, folkloristic, and sometimes ideological features. These features avoid

the inner world of the other, even when they insist on emphasizing the color and race,

thus the identity of the other, without their racial or ideological overlay.

In the historical context, more than in the literary level, the concept of the other

appears more complex in the anthropological level, with the exception of the new era

of globalization where the mythical dimension is consequently produced as world-

wide manifestation not only due to the imaginative potential, as occurs in some

literary but also technological genres and types, where it is not mandatory for the

other to necessarily be the adversary.