Year X, July – December 2025, 3-4

Disiecta Albaniae membra – retriving missing tiles of the mosaic of the Albanian diaspora

Keywords:Arbanija, Čiovo, Bua, Trogir, Split, Dominicans, Dalmatia, migration.

In her essay, Italian Albanologist Lucia Nadin focuses on a newly
discovered Albanian settlement called Arbania, on the island of Bua (Cro. Čiovo), very close to Trogir and just a few miles from Split. Judging by a limited number of records that historians forward, the settlement apparently dates back to the 16th century. Nadin believes that it is highly plausible that such unknown settlement must be seen in connection with the Dominican order, whose monastery was and still is close to Arbanija. Venetian records speak about Albanians, especially from Lezha, who had come to Durrës in 1480 in the hope of fleeing the country after the fall of Shkodra to the Ottomans. If  such settlement does not date back to this migratory wave, then it must have happened after the fall of Antivari in 1571, Nadin argues.

Albanian Dominican friars in Dalmatia (14th-15th centuries)

Keywords: Dalmatia, Albanian clergymen, shqiptar, Dominican Order, Topia, Durrës.

Following hot on Lucia Nadin’s article on the unknown settlement of Arbanija on the Bua island (Čiovo), Split, this essay focuses on the role of the Albanian clergy in Dalmatia over the 14th-15th centuries. Far from uncommon, author Arben Ndreca maintains that Albanian clergymen relocating from Albanian territories to Dalmatia often  brought along also their family members or cooperators. Such is the case of the Albanian dominican Msgr Dominic Topia, bishop of Curzola (Korčula). Mentioned in a record of 1368 in Dubrovnik, Rev. Peter Schipudar from Drisht (AL) stands out as the earliest example  known so far of the appellative meaning Shqiptar, that is, Albanian.  Also other prelates of Albanian origin e.g. Msgr Nicola Španić, from  the household of the Spanis, from Drisht in Albania played a key role in the life of the Catholic church in Dalmatia. Many Dominicans and Franciscans came to Dubrovnik from Durrës, Shkodra, Ulqin, Tivar etc. Such is the case of Fr Andrew from Durrës who became  archbishop of Dubrovnik, most famous for his sainthood. Also the  Albanian friar Johannes Masarech O.P. [Gjon Mazreku] became  bishop of a little town now called Međugorje, BiH.

Albania’s international position and its foreign policy in the second half of 1946

Keywords: Albania, diplomacy, recognition, Peace  Conference, Corfu Channel, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, UNRRA, Greece.

Albania was in a very specific situation with regard to its foreign policy during the second half of 1946. It really was a very hard time  especially after the communists had taken power in late November  1944. This second part of the paper focuses on the main problems  Albania faced in its foreign policy. The country’s participation in the  Paris Peace Conference was yet another achievement for the  communist government led by Enver Hoxha. Due to this  participation, the country avoided its dismemberment; it earned the right to obtain war reparations from Italy and sign a peace treaty  with this country. However, one of the greatest achievements of Albania at the Peace Conference was, beyond any doubt, the victory  over Greece, which claimed the south of the country by introducing  Albania as a hostile country which had sided with the defeated  powers. However, two of the major setbacks that Albania faced in its  foreign policy were not becoming a member of the United Nations  and above all the Corfu Channel incident. During such events, two British warships were severely hit by sea mines with the death toll  claiming twenty-two British lives. The paper is focused almost  entirely on archive documents, some of them published for the first  time.

The discursive potential of Albanian in literature. The linguistic identity of the characters in novels “Oh” and “Odin Mondvalsen”

Keywords: Linguistic identity, discursive repetition, literary  memory, narrative resilience, existential experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine specific linguistic  achievement in two of the most meaningful literary works in  Albanian after the Second World War. The first comes from the  linguistic milieu of Albanian writers in Kosova, whereas the second  comes along as a novel written in conditions of totalitarianism in  Albania. In fact, the novels “Oh” by Anton Pashku and “Odin Mondvalsen” by Kasem Trebeshina constitute powerful linguistic  database, authentic as to their core in which discursive register and  literary figures recall the meaning of reality beyond the reach of  words.
The essay centres around the intricate relationships of protagonists with language, which in turn appears as a means of conveying  personal and collective experiences through the tension generated  by fragmentation and building of new meanings of words.
Resorting to models of repetition as a technique of narrative and  philosophy, the essay demonstrates that these two novels defy  traditional structures of narration, creating new space for reflection  and resilience. The personal “I” of the characters in these literary  works merges with a suggested historical collectivity in which re- appropriation acts as a conservation of memory challenging oblivion. Even under circumstances of repression, Albanian has shown its linguistic integrity as a multidimensional creative means of  communication, ready to face up to multilayered literary narrative.

On the linguistic anchoring of the term interpreter in the Albanian language

Keywords: interpreter, interpreting, translator, translation,  Interpreting Studies.

In the Albanian context, from a client and user’s perspective, but also on a legal and regulatory plane, interpreting, has not been understood to be a profession which is distinctive from the  translation. The perception and conception of the interpreting  profession is ingrained in the word ‘translator’, not merely from a  lexico-semantic point of view. In Albanian the noun phrase ‘oral  translator’ is commonly used to differentiate between an interpreter  and a translator. Moving beyond that, the collective silent assumption is that anyone who can do translating can also do  interpreting bearing consequences for the profession and the service  quality. Therefore, the author intends to elaborate on the lexical  embedment of the terms interpret (en. interpreter) and interpretim  (en. interpreting) in Albanian, as well as their use in the discourse of  Albanian Translation and Interpreting Studies scholars. These  reflections are intended to make a contribution to promoting the  discussion on the autonomous professional identity of the interpreter in the public discourse in Albania and therefore the need for the terminological distinctiveness between the term interpret (en.  interpreter) and përkthyes (en. translator).

In search of the missing author. The novel “Chronical in Stone” as a reminiscence

Keywords:Bildungsroman, literary critique, communism, hermeneutics, autobiography, Albanian literature.

The novel “Chronicle in Stone” played a major role in the development of Ismail Kadare’s poiesis, as it inaugurated and spun  the dominant thread of this author’s narrative. Published in 1971, this novel was conceived much earlier, before assuming the tones of an  autobiography. The article examines the typology of this novel  highlighting that it belongs to the category of the “novel of  formation” (Bildungsroman). In fact, author Mandalà suggests that  this novel should be considered as a classical model of the “novel of  the artist’s education” (Künstlerroman), conceived as it was according to a long modernist tradition. To this purpose serves  commenting on the most meaningful paragraphs. It is a hypothesis  which attempts to modify the critique devoted to this novel so far. The essay also is an attempt to open a new path of research on  Kadarean narrative.

Gjovalin Gjadri, Destino e lettere d’amore
Dal libro “Lettere alla mia moglie morta”
(continua dal numero 1-2, 2025)