university of nova gorica graduate school contested spaces and ...

strictly forbade any crossing of state borders. Any attempt at unlawful crossing was harshly
punished. The road, which enabled trading and movements of people for centuries, was in
1913 firstly confined – when the borders of Republic of Albania were formed – and later, in
times of communism, made impassable. In his own words: “[…] later during the times of the
system when the state closed the road we were forbidden to move around.”
In her story Aspasia recalls memories about her mother. It takes the reader to places “[…] up
there, to the places behind the mountains.” It was there where her mother used to walk
together with other village women. Aspasia locates the village in opposition to the mountains
and places behind them. Women in her story map the paths between the village and places
behind the mountains. With their journeys recalled in the narrative they construct the space.
Aspasia mentions great poverty as the main reason for journeys across the mountains. Then
she “returns” from the description of space to the description of the place in mountains: Ag.
Pandeleimona, named after Saint Panteleimon. “In those times […] there was poverty, my
daughter. They went all the way up there to the places behind the mountains. They passed Ag.
Pandeleimona.” From the church the story maps the path further on, to the places behind the
mountains. By describing their actions (“They carried olives, olive oil […]” and exchanged
the goods for food) the story strengthens the old paths, which lead across the mountains. The
series activities and pertaining paths then return back to the place, to the village. In the last
part of her story Aspasia, similarly to Frosina and Pavlos, focuses on the description of the
village, where wheat does not grow as well as it does in places behind the mountains. “In
those times we only ate corn bread; without yeast. It was hard to eat. Therefore we often
wanted to eat normal bread from wheat which we could only get by exchange in the places
behind the mountains.” In conclusion Aspasia ascribes a negative value to the places behind
the mountains. Bad people, who often robbed the village women during their journeys back to
the village, are located there. “Sometimes they came back empty-handed because they were
robbed on their way back. There was poverty everywhere and people living behind the
mountains stole food in those days… They were bad people!”
Olgha tells me her story in the house of her parents. By describing the tiring work of her
mother during the building of the house (“This house was built with her hands and in her
sweat”) she maps the path between the house in the village and surrounding mountains, where
her mother used to gather the stones for the house. The space is again constructed through
these connections. “She collected most of the material for it – the stones which she carried
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