Year VII, July – December 2022, 3-4

The names above mentioned have been used for centuries in Albanian. Yet, little is currently known by their bearers and scholars alike about their origin and meaning. Author Ndreca tries to shed more light on the origin of such names in Albanian explaining their meaning and attempting to possibly set a date for them in history. So Murrash is the Albanian version for lat. Maurus, (Eng. Morris), whereas Gjeto and Gjetan match with lat. Vitus and Vitalis; Tetë stands for Octavius and to finish, Vogël for lat. Minor.
In his essay, Ndreca maintains that much is owed to the Benedictine monks who publicised the cult of St Maurus, St Vitus as well as St Gall, with the latter sounding in Albanian as Gjelosh. In order to succeed in spreading the Gospel, the author believes that the Benedictines translated the names of the patron saints of their order. Apparently only in Albanian the name Vitus is translated
as Gjetë, meaning ‘life’, whereas in other main European languages either the Latin or Italian versions are used for it. Names were translated even before the Middle Ages the author argues. Such is
the case for Tetë, the numeral eight in Albanian matching with lat. Octavius.
In the appendix, the essay focuses on a string of hypocoristic names such as Llesh, Lekë, Zekë, Gjekë etc. In this group the author  believes also belong Kokë and Dakë, Albanian versions standing for Saints Cosmas and Damian much venerated throughout the  Albanian territories during the Byzantine rule and later as well.

Records about an original alphabet of Albanian from the 17th century:
Cosmas from Durrës, author of the possibly earliest original alphabet of Albanian.

A text in Greek has been lately discovered witnessing the existence of an original alphabet of Albanian towards the end of 1600s. The text comes from Discourses on Helenism, a book by Anastasius Michael, an Enlightment academic. Published around 1710 in Amsterdam, only one signature is known so far to have survived from this book. In it is mentioned the metropolitan bishop of Durrës Cosmas Mavrudi as inventor of an original alphabet of Albanian. Such signature has been republished with new commentary by the scholar Charalampos Minaoglou in 2013, and we bring it here in Albanian for the first time for a broad readership.
Cosmas had served as metropolitan bishop of Durrës from 1694 to 1702. However, in this essay we trace back Cosmas’s life and deeds in Elbasan and investigate on the circumstances which must have prompted him into inventing an original alphabet for Albanian. His alphabet and writings are not known to scholars who conduct research on the earliest texts in Albanian.

To the origin of the De Radian odyssey and the
pre-Milosaic phase «in Italian». (part I)

Girolamo de Rada’s literary work and above all Milosao, his youth masterpiece have constituted the main subject of research for many
scholars, who have analysed its forms, purposes and, especially, the origins. Recent research exploring the earliest phases of the cultural formation of the poet have made it urgent to investigate such origins more in-depth. After having joined the so-called «Calabrian romanticism» – which forms part of the most authentic expressions of Italian Romanticism – Girolamo De Rada composed in Italian displaying the most important ideals which would shortly afterwards appear in Milosao (1836).
The reconstruction of his earliest literary experiences and placing them in the correct historical and cultural context reveal the multifaceted influences accompanying the poet up to the final version of Milosao, work which was destined to mark the future of modern Albanian literature. His period spent in Naples becomes thus more important, as here he encountered two other major Arbëresh poets who influenced him and his early literary production. It was this period which also marked his cultural
emancipation and maturity, and inspired him to continue with the themes that he had absorbed in his country of origin.

Anton Pashku’s new avant-garde poetry and his novel Oh

The literary work of Anton Pashku in general, but in particular
the novel Oh (1971), should be seen and considered in the context of the new avant-garde poetics of the second half of the 20th century. It marked in one form or another (and still marks in some of its  essential dimensions) almost all contemporary art. New avant-garde poetry – especially the Dadaist and Surrealist legacy – characterise Pashku’s work and his novel Oh as well. Such poetic heritage is one of the defining structural elements for the most vital part of art in Kosovë in the second half of the 1960s and 1970s (literature, painting, sculpture, ‘classical’ music, etc.).
Our focus on Pashku’s work in this essay is arguably justified by Bachelard’s claim: Literature contains all art (Bachelard 2005, 101). In Pashku’s text, almost all dimensions of such poetics have been transposed in the sharpest way.

History, voices and images from exotism of proximity.
The case of Albanian narrative in Italian

Albanian writers in Italy constitute one of the largest groups of
European writers who have chosen the language of the country in which they reside currently as the language of their narrative discourse. Presently, their works occupy considerable space in the Italian publishing market. Yet, despite the variety of its contents and the equally heterogeneous individualities of its authors, the Albanian literary oeuvre in Italian continue either to be labelled under the omni-comprehensive definition of “migrant literature”, or studied as a gender case, namely with almost exclusive attention to some of the most renowned female writers.
In our opinion, this gap in the Italian literary criticism strikes its roots in the general scarcity of knowledge of the Albanian literary landscape per se, and more generally of the historical-cultural background of a country which has remained until very recently one of the less known European countries. Our paper aims to observe whether, and to what extent, the Italianspeaking output of Albanian writers has finally been included in the literary discourse tout court, or it is still considered as an exotic, in a  word, heterotopic subject.