Folkloristics and Ethnography in Albania and Kosovo from 1945 to 1991: Different Paths but a Similar Approach

This essay examines the development of folklore studies and ethnography in Albania and Kosovo between 1945 and 1991, a period that corresponds with communist rule in Albania and Yugoslavia, of which Kosovo was a province at the time. The essay argues that the expansion of ethnography and folkloristics in both countries was not driven by communist ideology, but rather by a set of national ideas that were originally developed during the period of Albania’s formation in the nineteenth century.