Yugoslav Aesthetics III: Book Discussion: Women and Partisan Art. Aesthetics and Practices of Resistance in Yugoslavia und Carinthia, by eds. Elena Messner, Cristina Beretta, Goran Lazičić, and Markus Gönitzer

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

This collection focusses on art and culture produced by the members of the partisan movement, as well as on the later works and narratives about the partisan anti-fascist movement in Yugoslavia and Carinthia during WWII. The special focus lies on the various artistic and cultural practices of female partisans (literature, paintings, music, theatre, newspapers, handcraft), which contributed not only to the military success of the partisan movement but decisively influenced the women’s emancipation within the movement and consequently in the wider sections of Yugoslav society. “Women and Partisan Art” (ed. by Elena Messner, Cristina Beretta, Goran Lazičić and Markus Gönitzer, Bielefeld: transcript, 2025) includes contributions by 30 established and emerging scholars from European and American academia, going back to the international conference held at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria in Fall 2023. It is an important, cutting-edge publication in the field of Slavic and New Yugoslav Studies, but also a valuable contribution to the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazism and Fascism in WWII. In this roundtable discussion, the editors and some of the authors in the collection will present the main aspects and topics of the book and position it in the context of both current research in the academic field and on-going public debates on the subject.

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Kaitlyn Sorenson, SUNY Binghamton

Roundtable Speakers

• Olja Alvir, U of Vienna (Austria)

• Tatjana Rosic Ilic

• Katja Kobolt, Scientific Research Centre SAZU (Slovenia)

• Elena Messner, U of Vienna (Austria)

• Katarzyna Taczynska, Inst of Slavic Studies PAS (Poland)