LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY November 9th, 10th, 11th 2000 Saranda / Butrint (Albania) In collaboration with The Albanian Ministry of Culture The French Ministry of Culture The Albanian Embassy in France The French Embassy in Albania The Saranda City Council The Conseil Régional Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur The Academy of Sciences of Albania Les Rencontres Place Publique 4 Rue Puits Saint-Antoine F - 13002 Marseille Tél : 00 33 (0)4 91 90 08 55 / Fax : 00 33 (0)4 91 91 90 41 Director : Jacques Serrano Scientific Director : Françoise Gaillard Les Rencontres Place Publique Are under the patronage of Manuel Maria Carrilho Philosophe, Ministre de la Culture du Portugal Jean-Pierre Changeux Professeur au Colège de France et à l'Institut Pasteur Umberto Eco Ecrivain, Professeur de Sémiotique à l'Université de Bologne Raymond Jean Ecrivain Yves Jegouzo Professeur de droit à l'Université de paris I Panthéon Sorbonne Jean-Louis Leutrat Président de l'Université de Paris III André Miquel Historien Pierre Nora Professeur à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales Didier Raoult Président de l'Université de la Méditerranée (Aix-Marseille II) Alain Touraine Directeur de Recherche à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale July 1999 Last year in Marseille, Les Rencontres Place Publique organized in collaboration with Courrier International, the first " Rencontres avec les langues de la Méditerranée " which brought together linguists, socio-linguists, geographers, writers and translators from different mediterranean countries. It was a great success. So we decided to continue each year in a different mediterranean harbour. " Language and cultural identity " in Albania This year, we have chosen Albania because of the linguistic and cultural relations that this country has with its balkanian and mediterranean neighbours, and particularly the harbour of Saranda which is a crossroad between hellenic and latin civilisations. It is a well a linguistic crossraod. This meeting seeks to answer to present-day wishes of Albanians who think that the revival of their country depends on the resolution of their linguistic and cultural problems. Anyway, it is a burning question for all the balkanian and mediterranean countries. We are expecting a local and regional public (intellectuals, writers, artists, professors and students from the University of Girocastra), a national and international public (politics, intellectuals, writers, members of the Academy of Sciences of Tirana, journalists...). _________________________________ LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY With the " mondialisation ", Identity - which is less and less definite - is to be sought in Culture, in a large sense : all the symbolic practices of a community. Language is one of these practices and the most representatives of the way of seeing and thinking of a nation, a state, a community or a group. The best opposition to cultural Imperialism. But a language, as well as a culture, must be considered like open field where identities can evolve in relation with each other. The " bassin méditerranéen " is a real community of cultures because of the contacts and exchanges between all the languages that are spoken in the mediterranean countries. The more a language or a culture is self-confident, the more it is open to the others. Françoise Gaillard Guests : Astérios Argyriou, Nabile Farès, Kristo Frasheri, Artan Fuga, Christian Gut, Rexhep Ismajli, Ismaël Kadare (sr), Muhamedin Kullashi, Daniel Lindenberg, Shkëlzen Maliqi, Seit Mansaku, Maurice Olender, Remzi Pernaska, Rexhep Qosja, Danièle Sallenave, José Vidal-Beneyto (sr), Michel Wieviorka, Stephen Wright.