Škofja Loka Museum, Wednesday, 18 Dec 2024

Symposium concept developed by: Biljana Ristić, Mojca Šifrer Bulovec, Sara Šifrar Krajnik, Anja Zver, Dr Simona Žvanut

Symposium organised by: Biljana Ristić, Dr Simona Žvanut

As part of the one-day symposium, the invited experts will present the topics of both exhibitions in relation to the events and historical turning points that took place in the Slovene lands and Europe during the long 19th century. The symposium will establish an intersection of the exhibition projects by highlighting the key topics and opening a space for dialogue between experts and the interested public.

Lecturers: Dr Marijan Dović, Dr Lev Kreft, Dr Žarko Lazarević, Dr Ivan Smiljanić, Judita Šega

Presentation of the exhibition 19th Century Arts in the Škofja Loka Area: Mojca Šifrer Bulovec, Sara Šifrar Krajnik, Anja Zver (exhibition project leader)

 

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

11.00–11.10 / Aleksandra Saša Nabergoj, Welcome Address

11.10.–11.20 / Biljana Ristić, Simona Žvanut, PhD, Opening Speech

11.30–12.00 / Žarko Lazarević, PhD, Agriculture in the Škofja Loka Area Prior to World War I

12.00–12.30 / Ivan Smiljanić, PhD, Bankruptcies in the Škofja Loka Area under the Austro-Hungarian Empire

12.30–13.00 / Judita Šega, Healthcare in Carniola in the 2nd Half of the 19th Century

13.00–14.00 / Lunch Break

14.00–14.40 / Lev Kreft, PhD, Art and the Nation State – the Slovenian Way

14.40–15.10 / Marijan Dović, PhD, Slovenian Authors and Censored Writings: from Linhart to Cankar

15.10–15.40 / Discussion

15.40–16.00 / Coffee Break

16.00–16.20 / Biljana Ristić, Tour of Historical Collections with an Emphasis on Selected Objects

16.20–16.45 / Simona Žvanut, PhD, Tour of the New Permanent Collection of Old Books

16.45–17.45 / Anja Zver, Mojca Šifrer Bulovec, Sara Šifrar Krajnik, Preview of the Exhibition 19th Century Arts in the Škofja Loka Area

18.00 / Opening of the Exhibition 19th Century Arts in the Škofja Loka Area

SLOVENIAN AUTHORS AND CENSORED WRITINGS: FROM LINHART TO CANKAR

Marijan Dović, PhD, Senior Research Associate

Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

In the history of Slovenians’ encounters with censorship, the “long” 19th century represents one of the most eventful periods. A number of developments took place during this time, i.e. Slovenian secular literature was formed, the first Slovenian-language newspapers emerged, the national movement was established and strengthened, and international tensions heightened in the face of growing political differentiation. All these processes were significantly shaped by the imperial censorship: up until 1848, in the form of the prevailing pre-censorship, and during the post-March Revolution period, mostly in the form of repressive post-censorship. The lecture will focus on the encounters of Slovenian literary figures with censorship in the 19th century. It will explore this topic in terms of problematic content and show how religious, moral and political censorship shaped the Slovenian literary and cultural spheres in this period.

The first page of France Prešeren’s poem “Zdravljica” (“A Toast”) in the censorship-revision manuscript of Poezije. The red line added by a censor is visible next to the “Let peace, glad conciliation” stanza. National Museum of Slovenia, Poezije, Ms 11, sp. 26.

 

ART AND THE NATION STATE – THE SLOVENIAN WAY

Lev Kreft, PhD, Doctor of Philosophy and Professor Emeritus

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana

There was no other possible way to translate Benedict Anderson’s work Imagined Communities into Slovenian than Zamišljene skupnosti. However, when it comes to the emergence of a nation that justifies the right to its own state by referring to the existence of its own language and culture, the main thing is not imagining, nor inventing, but a strong and well-coordinated nation-building cultural production.

According to Anderson, the nation as a community that has the right to its own state is “a cultural artefact of a special kind”. And since a nation is a product of cultural imagination, it is art that has had the most to do with producing it. Some nations have been produced in pre-existing states, inherited from pre-modernity, and have only added nationalism as a connective tissue. For stateless nations, such as Slovenia, culture in the broadest sense was the only field in which they could justify the right to their own state, or still do (such as the Catalans). The fact that a nation is a product of cultural imagination does not mean that it is a fictitious formation, nor does it mean that it does not incorporate many elements that existed prior to the 19th century, the nation-building century of modernity. The old assertion that a national community is a product of nature (the birth of a nation) is a fallacy, and so is the postmodern perception of the national community as artificial. When it comes to Slovenia, it is worth taking a look at the concept introduced by Dušan Pirjevec (the Prešeren structure of the Slovenian national identity) and Dimitrij Rupel (the Slovenian cultural syndrome) one after each other. However, as an example of nation-building cultural production, it is useful to take another look at Fran Levstik’s Martin Krpan and Ivan Cankar’s The Servant Jernej and His Justice; in both these works, the nation is confronted with the people, which in turn brings conflict into the nation.

In early April 1848, Matija Majar Ziljski prepared a leaflet titled “What Do the Slovenes Demand?”.

 

AGRICULTURE IN THE ŠKOFJA LOKA AREA PRIOR TO WORLD WAR I

Žarko Lazarević, PhD, Scientific Counsellor

Institute of Contemporary History

The second half of the 19th century was a time characterised by rapid transformation in agriculture, which embarked on a path of structural and technological change. The topic of this lecture will be the state of agricultural structures in the Škofja Loka area in comparison with the nationwide situation. The analysis will be based on the trends in land tenure, production, education and market entry. The latter will be illustrated using the example of cooperatives, which were one of the most important tools for the modernisation of agriculture.

A view of the village of Zgornja Sorica, late 19th/early 20th cent.

 

BANKRUPTCIES IN THE ŠKOFJA LOKA AREA UNDER THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE

Ivan Smiljanić, PhD, Assistant

Institute of Contemporary History

Bankruptcies are a feature of any capitalist market. They are a legal mechanism that removes over-indebted companies from the market, distributing their assets among creditors, who share the losses. Due to financial losses, the process has always been highly unpopular. In the Škofja Loka area, bankruptcies were present as early as the Austro-Hungarian period, when at least 17 bankruptcy cases were declared between 1882 and 1915. Most of the bankrupted businesses were merchants, but there were also cases of the bankruptcies of cooperatives, taverns, dyeworks and other artisanal workshops, as well as a few bankruptcies of private individuals. Based on the available documents, the lecture will outline the bankruptcies declared at the Škofja Loka District Court during the time of Austria-Hungary.

A view of Škofja Loka’s Town Square between 1895 and 1911. The projecting roof at Deisinger’s store and inn Pri Soržu is visible on the left.

 

HEALTHCARE IN CARNIOLA IN THE 2ND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Judita Šega, History Professor, BA in Ethnology, Archival Counsellor

Ljubljana Historical Archives, Škofja Loka Unit

The first part of the lecture will present the organisation of healthcare service in Carniola, which was based on the 1870 State Healthcare Act and the 1888 Provincial Healthcare Act. Particular emphasis will be placed on the responsibilities of municipalities, health districts and district physicians. By law, municipalities were required to organise the public healthcare service within their own respective territories or in association with neighbouring municipalities in joint territories, i.e. the so-called health districts. In the Škofja Loka area, there were two such health districts, namely in Škofja Loka and Železniki. The lecture will also present the responsibilities of the district physicians, specifically the work of the Škofja Loka district physician, Anton Arko, MD. The second part of the lecture will outline the general demographic and public health situation in Carniola in the second half of the 19th century with a focus on the diseases that had a decisive impact on the mortality rate among the population at that time. Particular attention will be paid to those infectious diseases that were most common among the inhabitants of Škofja Loka and the surrounding area between 1880 and 1914. Based on the preserved archival sources, it will present the epidemics of smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, typhoid fever, and the looming threat of cholera and tuberculosis. The lecture will also present the measures taken to prevent these diseases, as well as the compulsory disinfection of infected premises and objects, and the provisions regarding the burial of patients who died of the listed infectious diseases.

Ivan Grohar, A Portrait of the District Physician Dr Anton Arko, oil on canvas, 1909.