La « biographie » : parenté incontrôlable et souillure politique dans l’Albanie communiste et post-communiste

During Communist times in Albania (1944-1991) everyone was defined, evaluated and classified through his or her « biography » [biografi], which was a judgement, in political terms, on one’s personality, acts and familial background. The « biography » was largely responsible for the authorities’ atti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gilles de Rapper
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association pour la Recherche sur le Moyen-Orient 2015-03-01
Series:European Journal of Turkish Studies
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/565
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Summary:During Communist times in Albania (1944-1991) everyone was defined, evaluated and classified through his or her « biography » [biografi], which was a judgement, in political terms, on one’s personality, acts and familial background. The « biography » was largely responsible for the authorities’ attitude towards the individual. In this paper, I try to understand what the word « biography » (and the phrase « good/bad biography ») meant for the people themselves. It appears that « biography » is often synonymous with « family or lineage background ». Such an observation leads to explain, in a second step, « biography » as the conjunction of a political concept, the « class struggle » as it was understood by both the authorities and the people, and the family or lineage [fis] as an institution of Albanian society. Finally, the paper suggests an interpretation of « biography » in terms of « purity », « stain » and naturalisation of differences.
ISSN:1773-0546