"Unfinished past" or the strategy of forgetting

2024-10-28 10:56:00, Kulturë CNA

Educator and political scientist Ermal Hasimja brings his opinion to the public in a completely different form.

With the newly published novel "The Unfinished Past" he brings the true story of his grandmother during communism.

"Unfinished past" or the strategy of forgetting

Separated for 44 years from her family in her hometown, Gjakovë, and with her husband convicted by the communist regime, the main character goes through the ordeal of life trying to preserve human dignity.

Her whole life is paced by the request to return to her hometown every Tuesday morning. Reuniting with the younger brother in Gjakova takes place in conditions even more destructive than the separation itself.

Hasimja has raised a parallelism between oblivion as a salvation from the suffering of the individual and the collective oblivion of the society for the communist ideology and regime. The novel has no victorious hero and no happy ending for the protagonists.

It seems that its main purpose is to raise questions. These are questions that no longer attract attention in media debates, subject to the momentary curiosity of the audience.

Is it a good strategy to forget what happened under communism?

Does oblivion eradicate evils or simply pave the way for their recurrence in some other, more contemporary form?

Have we learned any lessons from communism as a society?/ CNA