THE ROLE OF ALBANIAN FOLKLORE AS A BRIDGE BETWEEN NATIONAL CULTURE AND GLOBALIZATION.

Albanian folklore serves as a dynamic cultural medium that connects national heritage with global cultural flows. Far from being a static repository of ancient practices, it represents a living discourse through which traditions, values, and collective memory travel, adapt, and interact with diverse cultural environments. Epic narratives, ritual songs, migration ballads, and oral poetry function both as markers of identity and as channels of intercultural communication. Historically transmitted through oral tradition and later through scholarly collection and artistic reinterpretation, folklore demonstrates a continuous capacity for renewal while preserving its symbolic core. In the context of globalization, it provides a cultural bridge that allows Albania to participate in international dialogue without compromising authenticity. Its presence in literature, music, and contemporary media reinforces its role as an instrument of cultural resilience, showing that tradition and modernity can coexist productively. Albanian folklore thus emerges as both a safeguard of national identity and an active contributor to global cultural diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]