TUNE - workshop

Witches’ Literature in Croatia

Activity: First session of a 3-days reading Circle

Date: 22nd of October 2025, 12th of November, and 26th of November

Duration: 1,5 hours per session
Location: Kuća ljudskih prava, Selska cesta 112C, Zagreb

Organiser: Helena Redmer

Supporting Organisation: Documenta Zagreb

Summary

On October 22nd we had the first session of an overall 3-days reading Circle. The topic of the Reading Circle is “Eastern-European Witches‘ Literature”. Thematically, it covers the contemporary-historical background of five female Croatian writers and journalists, who have been labelled as ‘Witches’ in the 1990s for taking a political stance.

Within a three day’s reading circle, selected writings of these women are discovered in a group-process. Thematically, the first section introduced the topic by engaging in the overall European political history of the Witch-Hunts. The next two sessions will concretize this issue for the local and more contemporary political context. The aim of the activity is two-fold.

The first goal is to distribute knowledge on topics connected to human rights, like the history of european witch-hunts, misogyny and (feminist) resistance, also in view of their continuations. The activity aims at reaching young people who are interested in the sociology of the region, as well as connected topics like feminism and freedom of journalism and literature.

The second goal is to encourage debate. By choosing the format of a book-circle, mutual exchange and interaction between the participants is encouraged. During the first session, the text “Confession of a Croatian Witch” (1993) by Vesna Kesić (one of the women labelled as 'Witches' as mentioned above) was read. Participants were motivated to share their ideas and sentiments on the text. Debate was initiated through prepared Impulse-questions, which were formulated in a rather open way.

Thereafter, it was decided which book will be read for the following sessions. The group voted for the novel “Baba Yaga laid an Egg” by Dubravka Ugrešić. The activity was moderated in English, but multilingualism was welcomed. For example, it was made sure that the book is available in different languages.

Overall, the communication within the group during the first session was quite enjoyable and inspiring, and I am already looking forward to the next two meetings.