Review: Arian Leka, realizëm socialist në Shqipëri

Abstract

Where did Socialist Realism come from, and what was it, really? Was it a style, a movement, or something else entirely—a “method”, as its proponents so often characterized it? How did it relate to modernism, that similarly ambiguous phenomenon that dominated so much of cultural discourse—in the West, and beyond—during the 20th century? Arian Leka’s book Realizëm Socialist në Shqipëri attempts to offer answers to these questions, focusing specifically on Socialist Realism in the Albanian context, and looking primarily at poetry and literary criticism (although the book does examine visual culture as well, in its concluding chapter).