Fragmented Pasts and National Belonging: Memory and Identity in Lea Ypi’s 'Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History'

• In Event: Representations of Memory in Contemporary Balkan Literature: Poetics of a Common European Memory?

Abstract

This paper examines Free, Lea Ypi’s memoir, as a critical intervention in post-communist Albania debates on memory, identity, and belonging. Ypi’s account of Albania’s transition from an insular socialist state to a fragile democracy wrestling with capitalism offers a unique perspective on the complexities of national identity formation. At the heart of this analysis is the decapitated Stalin statue -- a resonant symbol of Albania’s fractured collective memory, representing simultaneously the erasure and preservation of its communist legacy. The paper focuses on key moments where Ypi’s childhood misconceptions about freedom, democracy, and Europe parallel Albania’s ambivalent relationship with the European project. Ypi’s eventual recognition that her family’s outward conformity under communism concealed deep political compromises highlights the dissonance between personal memory and public historical narratives, revealing how selective remembering and forgetting shape Albania’s post-communist memory landscape. Furthermore, Ypi’s reflections on migration and mobility restrictions expose the contradictions inherent in European ideals of freedom, demonstrating how European identity is constructed through mechanisms of both inclusion and exclusion. The paper argues that Free, narrated from the perspective of a coming-of-age child, echoes the experience of Albania, which was perceived by the Eurocentric gaze as infantile due to its inexperience with capitalism and liberalism. Free thereby contributes to broader discussions of historical justice, reconciliation, and the politics of European belonging.

Author

• Daria Smirnova, Duke U