Arshi Pipa as a National and International Figure

Abstract

In “The Columbia Literary History of Eastern Europe since 1945” (Columbia University press, New York, 2008), Harold B. Segel states that Arshi Pipa published a series of books of more-or-less scholarly nature that sought to expose the Albanian dictatorship in the way that Paul Goma sought to expose the Romanian tyranny under Nicolae Ceausescu through his fiction (Segel, 2008). That was undoubtedly one of the aspects of Arshi Pipa’s work, most of whose volumes in the English language being either a contribution to Italian studies – such was the case for Montale – or a dedication to the exposure of the richness and faults of the Albanian culture, literature, and contemporary politics to the English speaking audience. Our paper approaches the multilateral personality of Arshi Pipa (1920-1997) by observing him as a national as well as an international figure. Due to the nature of the conference, more details and arguments will be presented in the published paper, and only a brief account of our findings and considerations are going to be introduced now. Arshi Pipa was, undoubtedly, an Albanian writer, poet, literary translator, and political writer. But he was more than that. Having a multicultural education, holding a degree on philosophy from Florence University in Italy, and fulfilling the requirements of the professorship of North-American Colleges, his scholarly work includes a cultural studies component which has either passed in silence or been misinterpreted. Originating from a country which is a significant crossing path of western and eastern civilizations, such as Albania, and being educated both in a catholic school during mornings and a Muslim school (medrese) during afternoons throughout his childhood, excelling in philosophy in Florence, Italy, and teaching in the North-American Universities in 1970s, his body of English writing on Albania and Albanian culture was bound to be an epitome of the practice of cultural studies exercised on the aforementioned field of inquiry. Despite his probably better recognition for introducing the Italian poet Eugenio Montale to the English-speaking academia (Pipa 1968), followed by Montale who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1975, Pipa’s main academic focus and preoccupation continued to remain the Albanian Studies and Culture as he wanted the english-speaking academia to be introduced to them.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p328