Besa Hoxha Beqiri

 

 

Abstract: Throughout the human history there were many different kind of art censorship. The literature was part of it. So many times, literature was the result of a number of different prohibitions on the writings. In any case, one of the worst censorships occurred during the communist regime. The writer had to contend with significant number of do and don’t elements otherwise s/he would face consequences. This model of ex USRR and China, with all the worst scenarios, took place in Enver Hoxha’s dictatorial regime in Albania. The literature that started to develop so late, but before World War II, saw its peak, a time when prose took its shape, drama made its first steps, while on the other hand, the themes of writing were more colorful. Writers started to think and left some monographic, anthology of writers (for secondary school students), and even books on Albanian writers (introducing the starting elements of Albanian Literature History). During this regime, literature was subject to instruction and orders, on a limited number of themes of writings allowed (only those which were positive for the system, party and regime). But, there are also materials that makes one wonder if censorship that dictated literature and everything that had to do with it had been present the whole time, or whether or not there was also self-censorship that gave form to writings, and especially to the History of Albanian Literature. The aim of this paper is to compare published materials on literature shortly before this period and the period of the publication of the first History of Albanian Literature: obstacles, censorship and work done on it.

 

Key words: censorship, self censorship, literature, history of Albanian Literature