The Transposition of Narrative Texts onto the Albanian Theatrical Stage as a Sign of Departure from Socialist Realism’s Schematic Aesthetics

Abstract

This article examines the transposition of narrative texts, particularly novels, onto the Albanian theatrical stage during and after the socialist period. While the adaptation of narrative literature has been widely theorized within European theatre studies as part of postmodern dramaturgical reconfiguration, its development in Albania emerged under distinct socio-political conditions. Drawing on theatre semiotics, adaptation theory, and Albanian theatre historiography, the study argues that narrative transposition functioned not merely as a formal experiment but as a mode of aesthetic mediation within an ideologically constrained cultural system. In the context of socialist realist dramaturgy, such adaptations introduced structural, temporal, and psychological complexity that exceeded schematic dramatic models. Through selected examples, including the staging of ideologically aligned works and the recurrent dramatization of Ismail Kadare’s prose, the article demonstrates how narrative adaptation enabled negotiated artistic agency without overt ideological rupture.