Kujtesa Ndërbreznore në Rrëfimet për Kufirin
Intergenerational Memory and the Border Studies

Summary/Abstract: Borders, especially the political ones, have produced always very emotional oral stories. Based on personal experiences those stories affected not only the narrator and the people around him/her but usually passed to the second generation and even the third one. Political border between ex-Yugoslavia and Albania that “stood” there for less than fifty years and divided Kosovo Albanians from the other part of the nation, from after Second World War until early ‘90s, made that lives of many individuals and families be affected by that border. This “iron” border between two states, whose political relations were very heavy, reflected directly on lives of the people living in border area. These circumstances produced many personal and family histories, opening of which later gave light such stories. A personal history determined by this border is the story of an old lady from Albania who was married in Kosovo, just before they put the political border, and was very diffi-cult and almost impossible to meet her family in Albania for forty-two years. She got married, created family and raised her children in Kosovo (ex-Yugoslavia) without the right to visit her parents and brothers who remained in Albania. Her life was full of memories for her family, photos, handwriting correspondence with her brothers and lot of tears. Her children and even her grandchildren were raised with the memories of mother’s as well as grandmother’s family across the border. Through her personal narrative that I've recorded years ago, (she is deceased seven years ago), as well as stories of her daughter and granddaughter, I brought here an ex-ample of how memory is transmitted on generations. I presented this process by com-paring written historical facts with the recorded oral testimonies, based on theories of authors: Diane Bell, Astrid Erll and Maurice Halbwachs.

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