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

Figure 14: Paths and places from the story of Thodoris, born in 1928.
The maps drawn above illustrate how people in their stories perceive and conceptualize the
“whereness” of their village. This “whereness” is constructed according to their own and their
predecessors’ movements and restrictions during the times of communism, to geopolitical
divisions, and to topography of landscape. When dealing with sameness and difference that
both constitute and are constituted by this “whereness”, the maps show the direction of
movements and the position of places, which are taken into account in the constitution of
“whereness”. The emphasis on difference is present when looking at the relationships between
the villagers and the people and places “outside” or “behind the mountains”. On the other
hand, it is the emphasis on sameness that comes forward when the “whereness” of the village
is placed on the geopolitical map of the nation-states (e.g. Italy, Greece, Albania, etc.).
3.5. Summary
In the stories and remembrances recounted by the elderly people the sea and the mountains
are enclosing the village and defining it as an intermediate space, characterized by its
ambiguities. It seems that Dhërmi/Drimades is at the same time a place of manhood and a
place of womanhood, wealth and poverty, civilizedness and uncivilizedness. These
ambiguities concur with Dimitris’ statement that the sea is hospitable and mild while the
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