Tirana modern : biblio-ethnography on the margins of Europe

Guided by the thesis that literature can transform social reality, Tirana Modern draws on ethnographic and historical material to examine the public culture of reading in modern Albania. As its starting point, this book asks: How has Albanian literature and literary translation shaped social action during the longue durée of Albanian modernity? Drawing on material collected through fieldwork with a community of readers, writers, and translators attached to the independent Albanian publisher Pika pa sipërfaqe (Point without Surface), Tirana Modern provides a tightly focused ethnography of literary culture in Albania that brings into relief the more general dialectic between social imagination and social reality as mediated by reading and literature. Guided by the thesis that literature can transform social reality,Tirana Modern draws on ethnographic and historicalmaterial to examine the public culture of reading in modernAlbania. As its starting point, this book asks: How has Albanianliterature and literary translation shaped social action during thelongue durée of Albanian modernity? Drawing on material collectedthrough fieldwork with a community of readers, writers, andtranslators attached to the independent Albanian publisher Pika pasipërfaqe (Point without Surface), Tirana Modern providesa tightly focused ethnography of literary culture in Albania thatbrings into relief the more general dialectic between socialimagination and social reality as mediated by reading andliterature Guided by the thesis that literature can transform social reality, Tirana Modern draws on ethnographic and historical material to examine the public culture of reading in modern Albania. The topic of the book is: How has Albanian literature and literary translation shaped social action during the longue duree of Albanian modernity? "The book tells a story of Albanian modernity from the perspective of the author's participation in the daily lives of two avid readers living in Tirana"-- Provided by publisher