Love, Sexuality and Power in Albanian Traditional Folk Songs
Love, Sexuality and Power in Albanian Traditional Folk Songs

Summary/Abstract: This article examines how traditional love and erotic songs can be used to describe the discourse on power relations in Albania. Traditional love and erotic songs in Albania seem to be grounded in the contradiction between the natural, intimate expression of love and erotic feelings on the one hand and the moral codes of patriarchal society and state power on the other hand. Considering the socio-cultural and political context, the main focus of this article is to examine the songs as social texts and to investigate them as political spaces in which people express different forms of resistance: resistance towards the power of social hierarchy within the family and resistance towards other social structures. Secondly, the article sheds light on sexuality, which, as a pillar of identity, comes as a product of social relations framed by power and closely related to the social, political, and cultural context of society. The article is based on material from the folklore archives of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Art Studies in Albania and from different fieldwork on this issue. It explores only the textual dimension of the Albanian love songs in the sense of an “oral source”.

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