At this point cultural provincialism is largely expanding, which now lays as a subculture and as a non-communicable area with other parts. The overwhelming nature of provincialism is best described by Ezra Pound in one of his essays. Provincialism, he writes, consists of two parts: ignorance of the ways, customs, and nature of life of people outside of a village, community, or nation, and the desire to immerse others in ignorance. According to him, provincialism is more than ignorance, it is the ignorant plus the lust behind ignorance, it is hidden malice, often an acting and aggressive malice.
Author: Bardhyl Zaimi
Whenever we mention the lack of Albanian cultural communication, we can always recall the poetry “The Walls” written by the Greek poet Constantine Kafavis. The poet of tragic spontaneity quietly saw many wails, but with a tragic amazement, he cried out: “Where was my mind when these walls were raised, I never heard the masons, and not a single sound, without realizing I was separated from the rest of the world.”
Now many have described the bleak landscape of cultural communication within Albania. Hundreds of pages describe the boring face of accidental communications, which like a wave of identity breeze, until you close your eyes you can only see yellowish newspaper headlines thrown into a corner.
Now, Albanian cultural non-communication remains as a concern for all those who are trying to give a sense of preservation through cultural and literary claims. Until now, there has been much talk and discussion about the impossibility of normal communication of the Albanian cultural arena, which, besides suffering a moment of qualitative transformation, at the same time fails to identify the barriers of this non-communication.
The Bitterness of Excomunication
The rise of the walls is rather perceived as a metaphysical diversity and very little as a real state of excommunication, having to look for ways to find the other, the long missing one which now is under the rubble of transition, in a space of numerous cultural and literary transfers, it is shrinking in its infancy, keeping the creative heat alive with the latest hukamas.
The bitterness of Albanian cultural communication, during these transitional years, seems to have failed to identify the “black holes” of excommunication, which are constantly appearing in various forms, and in each boring season of noncommunication take on a new solemn face, but always in the function of deliberate misunderstanding.
It is constantly discussed for the Albanian cultural imperative, the urgent need for normal cultural communication between Albanians, but there is always a stumbling block that is no longer administrative, stemming from the intensification of accidental ignorance collaborations, which is expanding and extending power and becomes a spokeswoman for pieces of the cultural wilderness.
Perhaps, we should finally realize that the value referential system, which previously consolidates and reinforces the quality of cultural and literary production has now been turned into a cacophony, a crumbling collaboration that, before recognizing value, recognizes the “brotherly” hypocrisy of interwovens with a thousand extra-cultural and extracurricular threads.
In line with this claim, we are recalling the master of Albanian writing, Faik Konica, who at the time he opened the section “Timer of Albanian Letters” who had previously set up a system of references, or as he called them, points of support, when he evaluated literary writings. He was the first to compare Albanian literature with the world’s best works.
It would be haughtiness to claim such a thing at this time, but an attempt to establish a verified system of creative references would enable cultural and literary communication to gain the well-being of a deeper recognition of productions in the all areas.
Deleting the Reference System
The brutal deletion of the first ideologized reference system, and the lack of efforts to establish and consolidate a new system, in line with the horizon of cultural and literary expectations, has led to a repeat the hazardous walk in cultural communications.
From this wave of concerns, one can easily notice the lack of institutionalization of cultural and literary life, but always understood as the creator who expects genuine communication, rather than the pretense of producing the creator-institution or creator-state.
Ultimately, institutions cannot create the writer, the artist, but they can consolidate the creativity and can give a good physiognomy to cultural and literary production.
Throughout the years of transition, at the top of the hierarchy of institutions are the people who fall into the clutter of posts, fascinated by the heights of power, who flatten to the banality the creative management of institutions.
In the absence of a referential system and in the absence of a consolidated institutional life, everything gets the presign of haughty voluntarism. This point of fading, shifts the epicenter of cultural and literary recognition and cultural self-isolation which is brutally imposed.
At this point, cultural provincialism is expanded, which now pays as a subculture and as a non-communicable area with other parts. The overwhelming nature of provincialism is best described by Ezra Pound in his essay. Provincialism, he writes, consists of two parts: ignorance of the ways, customs, and nature of life of people outside of a village, community, or nation, and the desire to immerse others in ignorance. According to him, provincialism is more than the ignorance, it is the ignorant plus the lust behind ignorance, it is hidden malice, often an acting and aggressive malice
The relativization of values in the name of mass culture and the spirit of globalization further confuses intra-Albanian cultural communication. Market power, the spectacle world, and the profane reception of good values, catapult the juggler artist into the public sphere, one who knows how to easily touch the nerve of a public eager for gestures. Moreover, this kind of surface communicates miracles, because behind them are powerful ventures and curators who have long understood how money can be raised.
All those who claim to possess a productive mind are lost in this spectacle world, which is abundantly offered to us by the media. They can only bow to the light beacon of creativity and hope for another understanding, in another cultural setting.
At a time when creators cannot count on the sales market for their cultural and literary production, I think it is imperative to get them into the umbrella of cultural protection, since only in this way, they can survive and they will be given the opportunity to pursue their creativity.
New Forms of Communication
Mecenate remains a desirable form that can absorb genuine creativity and then affirm it as a value system. Intra-Albanian cultural communication should begin on the premise of a verified value system and beyond subcultural waste.
This communication must also transcend the schematic forms and in the meantime seek new ways and forms of communication. Cultural and literary media present a communication opportunity, but they also seem to be unable to survive this spectacle world. The appearance of cultural portals on the Internet can accelerate cultural communication.
Not to be misunderstood, it should be noted that subculture performances, the spectacle world, have receptors to another degree, but when the totality of the cultural imperative equals them, it means a lack of elementary sense to distinguish what is genuine value from what is transitional as a production.
It may already seem like a decadent to mention the National Renaissance period, but during that time cultural communication within Albanian has been much more consolidated than it is now. The identity vision and conceptualization as a whole of Albanian culture remains to be the one to be admired today.
At a time when the concept of culture has expanded with new theoretical approaches and has been replaced by modern cultural policies affecting a wide range of people, it is imperative that new communication practices be introduced in the future to make it easier to recognize cultural and literary production. Numerous online networks can be a form of communication if they are created by professionals and people who have some knowledge of what is valuable.
Acknowledging the plurality of cultural performances, acknowledging the confusion and rubble underlying cultural communication, one can reaffirm that cultural life, however, implies a creative spirit, a moment of transformation and communication. The cultural identity and affirmation of creative productions above all implies a coherent system of values, a constant stream of innumerable efforts to defeat vanity and fatality. The sense of self-correction remains an indispensable need to give cultural communication the appropriate dimensions.
Otherwise, even over all this time we can again whisper with a fatal surprise: “Where was my mind when these walls were raised, I never heard the masons, and not a single sound, without realizing I was separated from the rest of the world.”