The DePaul Hidai “Eddie” Bregu Lectures in Albanian Studies in Cooperation with The Martin Camaj Association (Germany) invites you to:

                     The DePaul Albanian Studies Annual Lecture

“Ulysses 2.0? The Return to the Balkans in today’s transnational literature”

with Professor Beljfore Qose (University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania)

and Professor Dr. Christian Voss (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany)

Q&A after the Lecture moderated by Dr. Gazmend Kapllani (Chair, DePaul Albanian Studies)

Join us for a fascinating discussion on Southeastern European literature after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The lecture tries to define unique selling points of diaspora literature from the Balkans. Authors like Ornela Vorpsi, Aleksandar Hemon, Pajtim Statovci, Kapka Kassabova, Bekim Sejranović, Gazmend Kapllani, Miroslav Penkov, Lindita Arapi are typical representatives of vectorial, often translanguaging world literature (which started with the postcolonial Windrush generation in London in the 1950s).

A core motif is the literary figure of the returnee whose antiheroic national indifference is a challenge to the dominant patriotic narratives. This modern Ulysses tells his story about alienation and loneliness both in the country of origin (patriarchate, misogyny, homophobia) and the host country (racism, discrimination) and personalizes the hybrid “third space” paradigm and transcultural in-betweenness.

The DePaul Hidai “Eddie” Bregu Lectures in Albanian Studies series brings to DePaul campus each academic year distinguished artists and scholars of the literature, language, history, thought, and culture of Modern Albania and Southeastern Europe.