Women’s Representation in Communist Albania: the evolution of the female figure and its influences in Albanian propaganda

The representation of the image of women has always been central to the propaganda of communist regimes throughout history. Women have always been vehicles of important sentiment such as the heroism and the strength of a country. The purpose of this thesis is to present the evolution of the female figure in the propaganda of Enver Hoxha's regime in Albania. By covering the different phases of the Balkan country’s communist period, this analysis takes in consideration the movie production of the state-own film studio: the Kinostudio Shqipëria e Re. As a consequence of the influences that Albanian propaganda underwent during the Soviet period, the pro-Chinese period, and the country's final period of isolation, the female figure in Albanian cinema adapts to models borrowed from the countries that supported Enver Hoxha's regime and conforms to the Party's demands that aimed at creating an image of women that embodied the communist values.