There is a particular historical logic underlining the main bulk of the historical works of Ismail Kadare, the most famous Albanian author. This logic stands as a pillar of an entire theory of a deep civilizational divide between the East and the West, which Kadare upholds and subsequently applies to his work. This consists in simultaneously presenting the East as a theater of backwardness and making sure that Albania stands far from it. In this context, it intersects quite often with the system of thought exposed by Edward Said, in his influential work on Orientalism.
This system of thought...