LITERARINESS AS FREEDOM OF THINKING

LITERARINESS AS FREEDOM OF THINKING

Tahiri, Lindita

The study argues about the advantage of the linguistic approach to literature in enabling students become aware of the multiple perspectives of narration giving them the power to do the work that otherwise the supreme interpreter would have done for them, thus sharpening their critical thinking skills. Contemporary novels in Albanian will be examined, by renowned writers such as Ismail Kadare and Ben Blushi. Kadare, probably the most famous Albanian writer ever, will be argued as an example of the author who kept the free thinking alive during the period of extreme totalitarian regime where the language was saturated with communist manipulative rhetoric, and his literature achieved this specifically with impersonal techniques of narration. These texts will be analyzed by pointing out the main linguistic indicators of interior monologue (Cohn), such as features of agency, transitivity, passivization, nominalization, deictic expressions, and free indirect speech. Examples from popular fiction will be discussed, taking into account the negative connotations about popular fiction as a kind of literature associated with industry and entertainment, as opposed to literary fiction which is studied at the academia. Popular fiction will be explored from the perspective of provoking public discussion about important societal issues, such as is the case with the Albanian author Blushi who aroused heated debate and was accused by the Muslim community for ruining the religious harmony of Albanians. This debate will be compared with the initiative to review Kosovar history textbooks due to their negative portrayal of Turkey. As conclusion, the study aims to demonstrate that perspectival narration may be used as teaching strategy to help readers explore the other’s self and develop freedom of thinking.

Article
PeerReviewed

International Burch University

2015

2956