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

from the hills in the neighbourhood.” She mentions the absent father, who was sent to
Yugoslavia by the Workers Party in the period of communism. Her memories of childhood,
the family and times of famine in the village additionally determine the space. “While she was
building this house our father was away. The Partia sent him to Yugoslavia in 1947. He left
my mother with three children – me and my two sisters – alone in the village […], we were
experiencing great famine.” Olgha states, similarly to Aspasia, that famine was the main
reason for women to walk across the mountains to places behind them. She names some of
these places in the region of Labëria, which puts the story back on the map: “we were
experiencing great famine. With other locals she crossed the mountains to Vranisht or Trubaç
in Labëria to exchange […].” These places are again determined by trading of the goods,
which were then often taken from women by robbers on their way home. Olgha also mentions
the approximate time of these events: before and during the World War II (1918-1945).
When the stories above are analysed according to de Certeau’s theoretical framework of
stories as spatial practices, his notion of “geographies of actions” is confirmed. Stories
continually organize and transform the space into places or “stops” and vice versa. Stories are
thus not a passive illustration of spatial transformations, but are actively involved in the
transformations of spaces, places, paths and borders.
The sea and the mountains are defined as spatial boundaries, which simultaneously separate
and connect the village with other places in Greece, Italy, United States, Yugoslavia and
Albania. The memories of story-tellers about their ancestors’ paths construct the social maps.
Village is represented as a central place in them with all other places related to it. These
spatial arrangements are distinct and redefine and shift the village’s “whereness”.
3.4. “Whereness” of Dhërmi/Drimades
The picture below shows the construction of space in Frosina’s story. She moved to Tirana in
times of communism and returned to the village after its end. She defines the “whereness” of
the village in its relation to Italy and Greece, and the islands of Othonas and Corfu in
particular. The space she creates through her story, situated in time of prin to kero tou Enveri,
comprises the village, Greece and Italy, and excludes Albania. The “whereness” of the village
was differently experienced and thought of during communism because of the closure of
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