Living Memory
The Social Aesthetics of Language in a Northern Italian Town
Blackwell Studies in Discourse and Culture
1. Auflage August 2012
270 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Kurzbeschreibung
Living Memory investigates the complex question of language and its place at the heart of Bergamasco culture in northern Italy. As in other multilingual nation-states in Europe and elsewhere, linguistic revival and survival represent the promise of local solidarity, but also a threat to larger social and political relationships and unification. Jillian Cavanaugh offers an in depth look at this mixed or bivalent language use in Italy today. She describes how emotional and complex debates in Bergamo highlight the meaning and use of the Italian language and of Bergamasco, the local vernacular that is valued for its links to a particular local past.
Living Memory investigates the complex question of language and its place at the heart of Bergamasco culture in northern Italy.
* Integrates extensive participant observation with sociolinguistic data collection
* Reveals the political and social dynamics of a national language (Italian) and a local dialect (Bergamasco) struggling for survival
* Introduces the original concept of the "social aesthetics of language": the interweaving of culturally-shaped and emotionally felt dimensions of language-choice
* Written to be accessible to students and specialists alike
* Part of the Blackwell Studies in Discourse and Culture Series
Preface viii
Constructing Transcripts: Orthographic Conventions and Transcription Processes xiii
1. Introduction 1
2. Bergamasco in Use: The Feel of Everyday Speaking 27
3. Gendering Language 64
4. Bergamasco on Stage: Poetry and Theater 83
5. Modern Campanilismo: The Value of Place 120
6. Bergamo, Italy, Europe: Speaking Contextualized 156
7. Conclusion 189
Notes 206
References 216