Praxis of Activist Singing – volume presentation (ed. Ana Hofman and Lada Duraković) and lecture by Chiara Bonfiglioli: “Drage deklete…”: archival traces of partisan women’s comradeship in Fascist jails

“Drage deklete…”: archival traces of partisan women’s comradeship in Fascist jails Following the biographical trajectory of communist partisan and politician Vida Tomšič during the antifascist Resistance, the lecture discusses the testimonies of Slovenian political prisoners detained in the Fascist jail situated on the Giudecca island in Venice. Shortly after the execution of her husband Tone in May 1942 in Ljubljana, Vida Tomšič was deported to Italy. On the island of Giudecca, together with other known and less known political inmates, like Pepca Kardelj, Erna Muser and Čita Lovrenčič Bole, she organized a party cell which put up a strenuous resistance against the nuns in charge of the prison. The inmates refused to work for the Fascist state, studied Marxism and foreign languages, supported each other with food distribution, and strived to mitigate the psychological effects of prolonged detention through party discipline and mutual support.

Chiara Bonfiglioli is Associate Professor in Contemporary History in the Department of Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator project named WO-NAM (Women and Non-Alignment in the Cold War era: biographical and intersectional perspectives). Previously (2017-2023), she lectured in Gender & Women’s Studies at University College Cork, where she coordinated the one-year interdisciplinary Masters in Women’s Studies. She is the author of Women and Industry in the Balkans: the Rise and Fall of the Yugoslav Textile Sector (2019).

The lecture will be in English and will follow the presentation of the Praxis of Activist Singing– volume presentation, edited by Ana Hofman and Lada Duraković.
Participants:
MARTIN POGAČAR
LADA DURAKOVIĆ
ANA HOFMAN
EDNA STRENJA
& PRAKSA CHOIR MEMBERS