Lea Ypi objavila je 2021, odnosno 2022. knjigu \u201cFree: Coming of Age at the End of History\u201d u kojem opisuje svoje odrastanje u komunisti\u010dkoj Albaniji i tranziciju koja je uslijedila. Knjiga je nagra\u0111ivana i izazvala je veliki interes javnosti te brojne medijske napise, a 2022. objavljeno je i njema\u010dko izdanje.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A reflection on “freedom” in a dramatic, beautifully written memoir of the end of Communism in the Balkans.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For precocious 11-year-old Lea Ypi, Albania\u2019s Soviet-style socialism held the promise of a preordained future, a guarantee of security among enthusiastic comrades. That is, until she found herself clinging to a stone statue of Joseph Stalin, newly beheaded by student protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communism had failed to deliver the promised utopia. One\u2019s \u201cbiography\u201d\u2014class status and other associations long in the past\u2014put strict boundaries around one\u2019s individual future. When Lea\u2019s parents spoke of relatives going to \u201cuniversity\u201d or \u201cgraduating,\u201d they were speaking of grave secrets Lea struggled to unveil. And when the early \u201990s saw Albania and other Balkan countries exuberantly begin a transition to the \u201cfree market,\u201d Western ideals of freedom delivered chaos: a dystopia of pyramid schemes, organized crime, and sex trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With her elegant, intellectual, French-speaking grandmother; her radical-chic father; and her staunchly anti-socialist, Thatcherite mother to guide her through these disorienting times, Lea had a political education of the most colorful sort\u2014here recounted with outstanding literary talent. Now one of the world\u2019s most dynamic young political thinkers and a prominent leftist voice in the United Kingdom, Lea offers a fresh and invigorating perspective on the relation between the personal and the political, between values and identity, posing urgent questions about the cost of freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lea Ypi<\/strong> is professor in political theory at London School of Economics, and adjunct associate professor in philosophy at the Australian National University, with expertise in Marxism and critical theory. She lives and works in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/wwnorton.com\/books\/9780393867732\/about-the-book\/product-details<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lea Ypi<\/p>\n\n\n\n Free<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming of Age at the End of History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘We never lose our inner freedom; the freedom to do what is right’<\/em>
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Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.
Then, in December 1990, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict. As one generation’s aspirations became another’s disillusionment, and as her own family’s secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.
Free<\/em> is an engrossing memoir of coming of age amid political upheaval. With acute insight and wit, Lea Ypi traces the limits of progress and the burden of the past, illuminating the spaces between ideals and reality, and the hopes and fears of people pulled up by the sweep of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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