Liberation in Comic Strips: Curious Lives of Partisan Comics in Socialist Yugoslavia

• In Event: Rethinking Yugoslav Revolution II: The Politics of Narratives and Images of Yugoslav People’s Liberation Struggle: Past for Future

Abstract

This paper deals with the popular comics in socialist Yugoslavia that became known as “partisan comics.” They include a wide variety of comics related to the events and images of the People's Liberation Struggle (NOB, narodnooslobodilačka borba/narodnoosvobodilni boj) and its immediate aftermath. Although the first “partisan” comics were made by the partisans themselves during the NOB, my focus is on the period between the 1950s and the late 1980s, which is characterized by a massive production of comics in Yugoslavia, a high popularity of “partisan comics” and a dense intertwining of this genre with film as another popular genre thematizing the NOB. The paper sheds light on the development of the genre and generational dynamics within this period and examines the dominant ways in which the production of 'partisan comics' and the changes within the genre were understood by both authors and analysts of Yugoslav popular culture and cultural politics.

Author

• Tanja Petrovic, Scientific Research Centre SAZU (Slovenia)