Mitologije Arberesev

In this article Emilio Cocco investigates the reasons why it should be important to write of the contemporary political mythology of the Arbereshe, an old Albanian minority that settled in Southern Italy from the 16th century onwards. Emilio Cocco assumes that some good reasons can be found in the political situation concerning Albania, Italy and broadly speaking the whole regional stability. Although the importance of such a tiny ethnic community could be consideed residual, the author suggests that on the contrary a reflection on Arbereshe mythological self-representation should be endorsed, especially nowadays. In fact, Emilio Cocco thinks that from little occurences and smal phenomena it might be possibile to better understand larger problems. Even though, for many observers could not be easy to see the link between the populr imagination in some scattered villages and international security problems. Conversely, it is exactly when the outburst of violence, troubles and illegal activities affects straightaway the stability and the security prospects of the area that more unseen and marginal- though important – issues run the risk to be let apart. The Arbereshe are barely recognised within contemporary Italy and subsist as one of the most neglected community from a political point of view. On the contrary, other sub-alpine national minorities are largely granted and manage to play important roles into the internal and foreigh affairs. AS a matter of fact, while the French, German and Slovenia minorities got a special status within autonomous regions of the Italian Republic, the Arbereshe did not. The link with Albania is just fanciful and emotional, inscribed in people imagination but never really legitimised politically. Accordingly, Emilio Cocco attempts to investigate the significance of the 15th century overseas memories in the making of the Arbereshe identity. Moreover, he tries to highlight the nature of the Italo-Albanian bond constituted by the special Arbereshe experience. In other words, the point he makes is that the alleged descendants of the Skanderbeg would bear a double identity and their mythological make-up would work for a supra-national political identity, which is summed up by the sentence “Two Hearts, One country” and is symbolised by the image of Skanderbeg itself. The article is divided in three main parts: in the first one Emilio Cocco analyses some important pieces of work of the modern Arbereshe intellectual elite. In the second one, he considers the political present day implications of the famous epic of Skanderbeg. Finally, in the third part, Cocco illustrate show concretely the double-identity pattern keeps on projecting the Arbereshe community outside a single national framework. [...]