The path of most Resistance: the intimate geographies of landscape for World War II Partisans in Northern Italy

The anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist partisan struggles of 1943-45 became iconic in the post-war construction of the Italian Republic. As the world came to terms with Nazi atrocities, the resistance positioned Italians as fighting this oppression. As Italians negotiated their fascist pasts, resistance stories offered a distraction and a new start. Consequently, the resistance was celebrated through all kinds of 'official' media and became central to Italy's post-war identity. 'Partigiani' were lauded by commentators and politicians (especially on the left). They were celebrated in historical writing, and by physical memorials, civic ceremonies and street-naming. In turn, these histories became embedded in school histories, especially in the North where the bulk of partisan activity occurred.

These histories were re-cast in the aftermath of 1989 and the fall of Italy's second republic in 1992. The right began critiquing the patriotism of Partisans' leftist politics, while more mainstream historical rethinking uncovered the fractured, politicized and often brutal and compromised nature of partisan life.

Yet the geographies of the resistance remain little-studied. While scholars frequently talk of the partisans' recourse to mountains or forests, they seldom consider the nature of these places. While historians documented the sites of resistance actions and refuges, they rarely considered how the fighters experienced these landscapes. Geographical understandings of the production and nature of these fleeting worlds are lacking.

We propose to use interviews with surviving partisans to explore the personal, emotional business of 'being there': of the partisans' understandings of, and engagements with, their landscapes of invisibility and refuge where they hid, sheltered, watched and waited. While starting with orthodox archives about their histories, this project will move beyond these to recover the intimate, sensual, embodied business of being and dwelling in these environments. What places inspired fear, attachment, remorse or hope? What characterised the micro-geographies of a resistance landscape?

Further, we will explore how the practice of resistance itself -and its modes of using, engaging and re-shaping landscapes- constituted both the resistance fighter and the Partisans across a series of case-study sites. These phenomenological approaches to the co-production of landscape and subject have developed apace in geography and archaeology of late (transcending more traditional attempts to apprehend landscapes). The engagement between the team's geographical and archaeological sensibilities allows us to explore the synergies of these approaches through a project of interest to many disciplines, and via a topic that is pivotal to modern Italian identity.

The case studies will be drawn from the Veneto, North-East Italy: a key partisan region that is central to traditional Resistance histories. These 'Official' accounts are enshrined in print and local museums, and in folk traditions of tales, poems and songs. We will examine these sources for and their evidence of furtive partisan lives amidst forests and mountains. However, we will then consider the partisans' production of these landscapes through in-depth interviews and, age permitting, site visits.

Finally, we will consider the afterlives of these sites and their histories. Remembering the resistance and visiting its iconic sites remains important for many in the Veneto, not least children who visit partisan sites on school fieldtrips. How are these places used to remember the resistance? How might embodied histories enliven these sites? We will also interview teachers and local historical advisors about how these sites are used in memory work, and how they translate the experiences of these sites to wider histories of resistance landscapes.

In sum, we promise a fuller picture of Resistance lives and landscapes before the last veterans slip away.

The significance and legacies of the Resistance are so far-reaching in Italy that this research will almost automatically find popular purchase in public arenas. Such interest has also accelerated again of late due to the current resurgence of the right and the concerns of some of its constituents to revise Resistance histories. Therefore, the Italian public will benefit from this research: hence our commitment to publishing in popular, public media to facilitate the dissemination of these ideas. We will submit an article to 'Eliseo' - a popular Italian geography / history magazine. We will also offer abbreviated versions to local and regional press in the Veneto; we will target the period around April 25th (Liberazione commemoration day and a public holiday) to maximize the impact of these articles.

The British reading public will also be included. We will also offer articles to 'History Today' and 'The Geographical Magazine' in the UK to reach popular audiences.

Our project website will likewise facilitate wide dissemination for this work amongst interested parties.

Towards the close of the project, we hope to publish short papers (inflected by local case-study materials) to the periodicals of the local Partisans' and Resistance organisations of the Veneto. They are the key gatekeepers of Resistance memory, and their sanction for our work will help to convince locals of its worth and would reach remaining the partisans and their families.

In practical and policy terms, we may impact upon the management and use of resistance sites, and particularly upon their presentation and use via the phenomena of Resistance walks and field-lectures. The local resistance associations should welcome this work - particularly its novel approach: certainly, initial responses have been positive. Similarly, local museums will be offered our written outputs.

We are in touch with P. Brescacin, president of the 'Istituto Vittoriese per lo Studio della Resistenza' (Vittorio Veneto) and organiser and leader of school fieldtrips in the provinces of Treviso and Belluno that visit the Pian Cansiglio Monument and the Palantina site. These trips are also open to members and friends of the Partisans associations in the area. A further contact we are approaching is A. Della Libera who also organizes field-talks and walks around Resistance sites. We will offer these gatekeepers the outputs of our work and access to our Italian workshop for teachers and trip-leaders. This will also be offered to schools in the Veneto regions acquired via De Nardi's contacts. If adopted, this may impact upon the practice of school field-trips to these sites.

Finally, secondary schools in Vittorio Veneto, Lorenzo da Ponte and Umberto Cosmo, hold a yearly essay-writing contest on the Resistance, where the themes are either 'People and heroes of the Resistance' or 'Places of the Resistance'. Normally pupils write stories or essays that mix both elements, and the prizes are awarded on April 25th as part of the Liberazione commemoration in the main square of each town. Again, we will offer our outputs and access to our workshop to these teachers.

There is a timetable for feeding this data into the public realms of Italy and the UK as outlined in the Impact Plan.