Petro Marko, a Drama Confronting Criticism
Abstract:
The purpose and object of this study is the writer Petro Marko in relation to the critical thought of his time as a playwright, where his small contribution to this literary genre serves as a reference for the era and the challenges that drama faced during that period. Known primarily as a novelist and a significant literary figure of his time, Petro Marko is mostly classified among the censored authors, particularly in the dramatic genre. The central research question is: “What was Petro Marko’s challenge in writing drama in the 1960s?” During this period, ideology and political demands had erected an insurmountable barrier for Albanian drama, allowing only works that aligned with the tastes and interests of the regime. Bora e kuqe, a dramatic work by Petro Marko and a ver sion of the play Zonja Çurre, was never published. The results of this study will focus on the dramatic pieces written by Petro Marko, such as Guna mbi tela, which centers on the Vlora War, and Niku i Martin Gjinit, a drama inspired by the era of Skanderbeg. However, the latter carried implicit political connotations due to the “liberalizing” elements that permeated it, leading to its prohibi tion as an ideologically harmful work inconsistent with socialist realism. Both works thematically embrace a his torical approach and evoke the theme of freedom. However, Petro Marko seems to engage with his time primarily through the metaphor of the individual’s fate in moments of crisis. The conclusions of this study will be based on the literary and critical findings of the time, highlighting how Petro Marko carefully entrusted the messages of his dramas to those who could decipher them. Both Zonja Çurre and the play inspired by Skanderbeg’s era, beyond addressing national independence, clearly reference the concept of freedom. Freedom, as a universal metaphor, constitutes one of the most fundamental concepts in world literature throughout history
