An Overview of Eqrem Cabej’s Literary Thought

Abstract

For over half a century, Cabej, like a few others, saw great achievements for his contribution to various fields of Albanology
and Balkanology. The breadth of his interests and his scientific productivity are perspicuous testimonies of the fact that he was a gifted
scientist of European caliber, who dedicated his entire life to science. The writings of great linguists and humanists such as Eqerem
Cabej are part of those elements, which constitute the cultural foundations of a nation. Just like the mighty mountains, such contributions
cast their shade and rest their weight everywhere. Even when lacking the possibility or the need to analyze them in detail, the wide
masses of the common people can feel their irradiating influence, and most of all, they truly believe them. Eqerem Cabej is a profound
scholar of the genesis of Albanian literature. He created the theoretical core of Albanian Romanticism and started the theoretical initiative
of the Modern Albanian Literature. As a pioneering theorist of the latter, which inevitably includes language too, he put forth prodigious
efforts to make it as rich and dynamic as possible, and as developed, and particularly, as aesthetic as it could be. His work, just like the
busy hum of the working bee, was persistent and tireless — the work of a great master. His work will be traveling the Albanian-speaking
world in perpetuity, due to its being as language-forming as it is world-forming.