Qualestoria (journal of the Istituto Regionale per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione nel Friuli Venezia Giulia)
Collaborationism, civil wars and resistances
Deadline: 31 July 2014
From more than two decades, at least since the 1990s, historiography on the Resistance has progressively engaged in a process of methodology and knowledge enrichment favoured by the
end of the Cold War and the demise of the mobilizing factors that had accompanied the bipolar division of European politics, cultures and societies. As a consequence, the predominantly political-
military approach adopted by studies on these matters has begun to merge with cross-contributions from the other social sciences, so that the field of inquiry has extended to encompass sources and
topics hitherto little explored or not at all. Acquisition of the notion of ‘total war’ as the point of departure has encouraged a new wave of research investigating the less obvious aspects – the ‘grey
areas’ – of a conflict unprecedented for its intensity and extent. Attention has thus turned, for example, to the ideological cleavages within societies (wars of liberation as civil wars), to forms of
resistance other than of canonical military type, to the various types of violence and their cultural and anthropological implications, to redefinition of the diverse concepts of nation and citizenship
elaborated by the political cultures of anti-fascism.
Given these considerations, on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the Liberation, Qualestoria (journal of the Istituto Regionale per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione nel
Friuli Venezia Giulia) has issued a call for papers for preparation of a special issue on the topic Collaborationism, civil wars and resistances to be published by December 2015. The purpose
of this initiative is to take stock of ongoing studies devoted to the ‘European civil war’ and give visibility to original research based on new sources and innovative methodologies, with particular
regard to comparative approaches and the geographical focus on Italy, Central-Eastern Europe, and frontier regions.
There follows a list (not exclusive) of the topics which we intend to address.
• Violence: the various kinds of violence – political (partisan and nazi-fascist), social (as class war), and ordinary – and their possible interweaving; the methods of struggle adopted
by movements of different political persuasion; analysis of violence (legitimation and problematization); civil wars in the context of Central-Eastern Europe; the normalization of the
post-war period, the abandonment of violence and the return to the civil life.
• Collaborationism: the extent, composition, and internal logic of the phenomenon.
• ‘Other’ resistances: civil disobedience, refusal of military service, conscientious objection,
resistance in prison camps, female engagement in the Resistance, relationships between Jewish culture and Resistance, Jewish Resistance.
• Antifascist political cultures: the theories of antifascist intellectuals, with particular regard to the notions of Europe, nation and citizenship.
We invite scholars of every order and grade (lecturers, post-doctoral researchers, doctoral students) to submit proposals for papers, in Italian or English, on one or more of the above topics.
The abstracts (no more than 2,000 characters) and a brief biographical note must be sent by 31 July 2014 to the journal’s editorial office (qualestoria@irsml.eu). Acceptance of proposals by the
editorial board will be made by 30 September and will then be communicated to those concerned, together with the editorial guidelines. The authors should then send their papers in Italian or English
by no later than 30 April 2015.
