Shaping “New Man”, Reconstructing “New Woman”: A Return to Albanian Totalitarian Socialist Past

Abstract

The totalitarian socialist regime, which was installed in Albania in 1945, lasting until 1990, was expressed and articulated as a consistent effort led to modernism or civilization, as a kind of “social engineering” incarnated to the inner individual and society dimensions. Fighting old and traditional mentality, the totalitarian socialist countries created the infrastructure for spreading the model of the “new man” according to new principles, aiming to make everyday life productive and disciplined. Under the implementation of the “new man” approach, especially the image of woman was reconstructed. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the ideal of the “new man” and “new woman” were socially constructed and how they have influenced the everyday life of people, under the totalitarian socialist regime, referring to the case of the Albania. 18 in depth semi structured interviews with woman and men from 55 until 85 years old have been conducted and the poetry and text songs of that time have been explored. The research showed that through the trinomen “education-work-tempering”, the “new man” and “new woman” was socially constructed. People’s social status, during the socialist regime in Albania influences their perceptions and their attachment to the “new man” and “new woman” portraits

Received: 4 September 2021 / Accepted: 15 November 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022