A general overview of the literature for children in the first part of the 20th century

Abstract

Although in the first decades of the 20th century the Albanian literature for children did not recognize any distinguished literary work, a series of liberation insurrections in north and south as well as the Declaration of Independence in 1912 show the great efforts of our Renaissance figures who were teachers, ideologists and active participants in the armed movement. All this big issues in the life of Albanian people as well as their freedom-loving spirit become the inspiration of many themes, details and motives in the Albanian literature for children. Some of well-known representatives of our national Renaissance such as: Çajupi, Asdreni, Fishta, Mjeda, Gurakuqi, Xanoni, J.Bageri etc., continued writing even during the first decades of the 20th century. In their poetic and literary writings, one could distinguish the romantic spirit of the exuberance of the love for the country, for the nature, for the universe, and sometimes there could be distinguished even a realistic tone which described the Albanian life. Throughout all this literary work, the love for the country was connected with the love for the language and with the great efforts that were made for founding Albanian schools, with the reverberation of the wars for freedom, with the description of nature, birds and flowers as well as with the inspiration taken from the fantastical and fabulous world of the world literature.