Musine Kokalari’s Canonization of Women’s Lives and the Domestic Sphere in Albanian Literature

Musine Kokalari’s literary universe is exclusively the domain of women. From overseeing marriage arrangements to gossiping about men’s untrustworthiness, Kokalari’s books weave a rich tapestry of southern Albania’s private sphere in the early twentieth century. This article explores Kokalari’s fiction to show how her writing challenges and expands the mythological and epic character of the Albanian literary canon. Focusing on her collection of short stories (Siç më thotë nënua plakë) and her only full-length novel (Sa u tunt jeta), it will argue that Kokalari’s attention to the lives of ordinary Albanian women demonstrates the importance of women’s knowledge and how the domestic is crucial to a nation’s cultural history and its identity.

Duke Scholars

Author Barbara Halla