A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #13-26 - Singing the Square. Differences and Similarities in the Politics of Storytellers (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This publication features important essays by authors who address 
various themes and aspects of the figure of the storyteller over the 
decades. Gian Paolo Borghi, author of countless scholarly contributions, 
has for many years devoted himself to ethno-historical and 
ethno-anthropological studies, as well as contemporary history. In his 
essay (From the Postwar Period to the Years of Urbanization: The Rural 
World in the Contrasts of Storytellers from Emilia and Romagna), he 
examines the processes of industrialization and agricultural 
mechanization that impacted traditional peasant society, which gradually 
suffered repercussions that produced their first disintegrating effects 
as early as the early decades of the 20th century. G. P. Borghi's 
analysis of a historical process fundamental to Italian peasant 
civilization and to Italy's evolution into an industrial nation.

Mauro Geraci, full professor of Ethnology at the Department of Ancient 
and Modern Civilizations at the University of Messina. A storyteller 
himself, he has written extensively on this topic, and his book Voices 
and Stories: Knowledge, Projects, and Tasks of Storytellers from the 
South, from Yesterday to Today, from the "True" to the "Last."

In this text, he decries the oleographic representation that has 
developed in recent years, whereby popular entertainment, folk art, the 
author, and especially the popular singer, or cantora, are transformed 
into priests of anti-consumerism, effectively making them more 
"consumable," in a sort of heterogenesis of ends, "under the banner of 
archaic, local, populist, folkloristic, and 'politically correct' logics 
that, while displaying projects of study and preservation, end up 
neutralizing the very critical, if not subversive, thinking that has 
historically distinguished storytellers with their heretical eclecticism."

Tiziana Oppizzi, a storyteller herself, is interested in popular culture 
and music. A former contributor and editor of the magazines "FB 
FolkBulletin" and "Il Cantastorie," she is active in several choirs. In 
her essay, "A Storyteller Tells Herself." Experiences, struggles, and 
resistance in stories and pamphlets, in addition to narrating their own 
experiences, raises crucial questions, first and foremost that of 
whether the ballads' content is truthful. "Facts, data, and novelties, 
even those that are false and fabricated, have a decisive impact on 
people's lives through the increasingly pervasive and proliferating 
media. It is precisely from this epochal change, widely recognized by 
anthropologists and sociologists, that I would like to begin to rethink 
the figure of the contemporary folk bard." T. Oppizzi, founder of the 
cultural association 'Il Cantastorie on line', along with Claudio 
Piccoli, who is also interested in popular culture and music, 
contributes the essay "Tradition and Modernity of the Storyteller: 
Differences and Similarities." Claudio Piccoli's essay revisits the 
history of storytelling, both in print and digital, with pertinent 
observations, such as the observation that the conditions of musical 
communication have allowed the storyteller to evolve from a traveling 
chronicler, a follower of Homer, but equipped with a microphone, into 
the more global dimension of the street performer.

Franco Schirone, a freelance researcher on anarchist themes and the 
author of several works, introduces us to Storie, Ballate e Fogli 
Volanti: il Canto Anarchico e i Cantastorie (Stories, Ballads, and 
Flying Sheets: Anarchist Song and the Storytellers), a powerful essay, 
illustrated with illustrations of flying sheets and texts from the Paris 
Commune (1871) to the present day, that explores the identification, or 
rather, the assimilation, of popular song to social song. The author's 
overview proves to be of the utmost documentary importance, managing to 
produce almost unknown texts on Giovanni Passannante and Sante Caserio, 
as well as previously unpublished works on Gaetano Bresci. F. Schirone's 
review is packed with insights, news, and creative inspiration, bringing 
together diverse works and authors, from pamphlets and street singers of 
yesteryear to modern storytellers, niche songwriters, and popular 
singers, all connected by the red and black thread of anarchic influence.

And let's not forget the lively introductory essay by Pardo Fornaciari, 
a late storyteller who introduces us to the tradition of improvised 
poetry in ottava rima and sing-a-long in general, which still survives 
in a few areas of Italy.

Published by Edizioni Colibrì, the volume was edited by the 'Pietro 
Gori' Cultural Association of Milan and the 'Il Cantastorie on line' 
Cultural Association, 270 pages, EUR17.00.

Anteo

https://umanitanova.org/cantare-la-piazza-differenze-e-analogie-nelle-politiche-dei-cantastorie/
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