Partisan Drama (1941–1945)

Abstract

During the Second World War there was lively theatrical activity in the partisan army. What remains of it, apart from the memoirs of the participants, are numerous theatrical texts that have been studied by Viktor Smolej and Ferdo Fischer. However, former analyses seem unable to investigate them without bias and therefore either take their aesthetic value for granted, simply because they are a reflection of the nation’s struggle for freedom, or deny them any aesthetic value for ideological reasons. – This can be seen even through the historical development of the terminology of the genre. Partisan dramatic texts used to be called “sketches”, as this stresses their brevity and unpretentiousness. As this term is unsuitable for longer and more complex texts, that are rare, but nevertheless exist, Matjaž Kmecl in his Mala literarna teorija (1976), uses the term agitka, which is taken from the Russian revolutionary and social-realistic theory of drama. This term seems much more suitable, as it does not specify the length of the pieces, but conveys the main quality of these texts, being agitation and propaganda for the partisan movement and communist revolution. It has finally been adopted by Andrej Inkret in Enciklopedija Slovenije (1987). – This article tries to approach agitka in an unprejudiced manner to find its immanent structure. It was most interesting to discover that it resembles the historical genre of commedia dell’arte, especially in having fixed characters and situations. This structure consists of seven characters that position themselves between two extremes, the positive end being the hero, and the negative, the domestic traitor. – When seeking out reasons for this, it is usually believed that it was the result of very strict censorship in the partisan army, and that agitka is therefore too ideological to be recognized as an example of artistic literature. However, what strikes us as odd is that there are some complex pieces (Žene ob grobu, Težka ura…) that resemble the structure of bourgeois drama. This is why it is probably more accurate to think of agitka as a result of especially harsh historical and political circumstances that required a genre which could be easily written, staged and, finally, also controlled by the leadership; but at this point we have to add that this censorship was not nearly as strict as it was usually believed to have been, which is demonstrated by the variety of the pieces. Therefore, we have to admit that agitka is more or less the reflection of the genuine beliefs of its authors.