Teaching and Research Group Spanish Literature and Language Communication
Chair: Prof. Dr. Anastasi Prodani
Email: [email protected]
The Teaching and Research Group “Literature & Communication”, established within the Department of Spanish Language, is headed by Prof. Dr. Anastasi Prodani and includes the following members: Dr. Admira Nushi, Dr. Flavia Kaba, Dr. Viola Biti, Dr. Mimoza Dhima, and MSc. Edlira Gabili.
In its research activities, this research group aims at promoting the European cultural identity of Albania through the preservation and transmission of its intangible cultural heritage, including in the Spanish language.
- To diversify the tourism offer by promoting our intangible cultural heritage, which remains unknown or little known to Spanish-speaking foreign visitors.
- To collect complementary information along the itineraries currently offered, highlighting differences while simultaneously emphasizing the connecting bridges between peoples that contribute to regional unity and European values.
- To develop tourist itineraries based on Albanian literature translated into Spanish, as well as on the works of foreign travellers who visited Albania throughout the centuries and whose writings highlight the distinctiveness of Albanians and their role in the history of the region.
- To cooperate with tourism agencies and other national or international institutions.
In accordance with the document “Scientific Research Strategy of the Faculty of Foreign Languages for the period 2022–2023 and 2023–2024,” the group developed the project:
“How Can We Make Our Cultural Heritage Speak Spanish?!”
The project proposes that, based on the tourist itineraries currently available on the Albanian market, particularly cultural itineraries—with priority given to those encompassing the three neighbouring countries according to EPA criteria¹—a complementary itinerary be offered along these routes. This would ensure an integration of existing information on Albania’s natural and cultural landscapes, many of which are important archaeological sites registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List, with the intangible heritage of Albanian regions.
The group’s research work is initially envisaged to consist of compiling a bibliography and collecting complementary materials along the itineraries in question. Spanish-speaking visitors would thus be offered, alongside coastal and mountainous, rural and urban, European and peripheral Albania, an Albania characterized by a rich intangible heritage related to:
- Albanian customs and traditions (Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit),
- Albanian written literature (Albanian novels and mythology translated into Spanish),
- Publications by foreign travellers in Albania that are also known in Spain (e.g. Childe Harold),
- The difficult heritage of the twentieth century, particularly the totalitarian period,
- Contemporary topical issues related to the negative stereotypes and “black legends” surrounding Albania and Albanians, the image of Albania before and after the 1990s, as well as religious tolerance and harmony, hospitality, etc., as reflected in the Spanish press.
Specific objectives of the research group:
- Preparation of a complementary bibliography (mini-bibliography) for Master’s students in Spanish-language tourism communication, covering publications of this nature.
- Increasing the direct involvement of students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages in these projects, both through Master’s courses and through the selection of Master’s thesis topics, with the best works to be presented at scientific conferences or published on the websites of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and/or the Ministry of Tourism.
- Coordination of the work with the one-year translation project funded by the Faculty of Foreign Languages for 2023, thus aiming to promote interdisciplinary cooperation between communication and translation.
- Publication of materials for students of the “Intercultural and Tourism Communication in Spanish” programme or for tour guides currently operating on the market.
- Modification of the Albanian Literature course in the respective Master’s programme, with a focus also on this type of literature.
- Concrete efforts to introduce Archaeology and Ethnography as compulsory subjects or, if this is not possible, as the two highest-priority subjects among the elective courses.
- Proposal for the establishment of a one-year professional Master’s programme for “National Bilingual Tour Guides,” with Spanish as the first language.
Group Activities: Research Topics
- Compilation of a bibliography and establishment of a mini-library
- Foreign travellers writing about Albania and Albanians, Byron, etc., together with folk creations
- The image of Albania before the 1990s
- “Black legends” about Albanians (the Spanish press after the 1990s)
- Novels by Ismail Kadare and others translated into Spanish, addressing topics of interest to Spanish-speaking tourists: besa, blood feud, hospitality, the Cold War, Gjirokastra, the Italo-Greek War, legends
- Musine Kokalari as the first Albanian woman writer; the themes of her writings; her fate and that of the Albanian intellectual opposition
- Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit and Albanian customs
- Compilation of a bilingual glossary of cultural heritage
- Albanian society during the Enver Hoxha dictatorship
- Living biographical and narrative experiences
- Religion and religious harmony. Bektashism
- Albanian cinematography and foreign productions. Film recommendations: Pankartat; The Invocation of Enver Simaku
- Albanian literature published in Spanish and Hispanic literature published in Albanian before and after the 1990s
- Modifications to the Tourism Communication course by incorporating one-day field-based activities outside the classroom
