‘Bella ciao’ is one of the best-known partisan songs of the Italian anti-fascist Resistance (1943–5) and is part of the repertoire of protest of many movements across the globe. In 2018, the song was ...revived by its use in the popular TV series La casa de papel. This article examines how ‘Bella ciao’ is adopted by activists worldwide. It does so by analyzing the song through the concept of ‘portability’: the capacity of a cultural artifact to be a model that can be adapted to different contexts. After an examination of ‘Bella ciao’'s historical uses, the article focuses on the song's feminist versions for supporting different causes and in particular abortion rights. The reuses of the song speak of memory in terms of not only a product – what we remember – but also a process: the creative use of the cultural legacy of past movements for the shaping of new stories.
This article introduces the concept of the instituting force of activist archives. It does so by analyzing the epistemological and ontological implications of describing and arranging archival ...materials, and narrativizing them in curatorial work, in the case of the Archivo de la Memoria Trans de Argentina—Trans Memory Archive of Argentina. On the one hand, the archival arrangement provides trans people with a frame of recognition for trans lives and transforms individual memories into collectable and usable cultural memories for activism. On the other hand, the appropriation of the language of the family in curatorial works incorporates trans memories into the framework of Argentinian post-dictatorship transition. This allows activists to gain access to, and adapt, an entire repertoire for trans causes and activist kinship. The article supports the analytical work and the presented theoretical hypothesis by creating a dialogue between cultural memory studies and critical archival studies, for the exploration of memory activism.
In the multidisciplinary field of memory studies, remembering and forgetting have mainly been analyzed following two ideal-typical models: memory-as-containment (exemplified by the notions of ...framework and site of memory) and memory-as-flow (epitomized by the notions of afterlife and mnemohistory). These two models are often presented as mutually exclusive and counterposed. Yet, in linking past with present, and when connecting different spaces and generations, memory is always the result of circulation (flow) as well as of local semiotic conditions of production and use (containment). By investigating memory-making and oblivion-making in processes of interpretation, the semiotic perspective elaborated by Umberto Eco allows us to envision memory-as-containment and memory-as-flow in a combined analysis, where the twofold conception of memory – either as movement or as form – merges. The aim of this article is, then, to provide an interpretative theory of memory, and to identify and describe the methodological tools capable of implementing such an approach. The memory of the former Italian concentration camp of Fossoli will serve as an exemplary and illustrative case study.
Semiotics has a long and distinguished tradition in Italy. Currently, Semiotics is taught in different universities where structured groups of research work, particularly in Bologna, Reggio Emilia, ...Palermo, Teramo, Torino, Roma, Siena, Urbino and Venezia (Ca’ Foscari). Main centres of research Centro di semiotica e teoria dell’immagine Omar Calabrese (Università di Siena, http://www.media.unisi.it/css/centro.html) Centro Internazionale di Studi Interculturali di Semiotica e Morfologia (Univer...
Pride marches and parades are public events that take place globally every year. Born in the wake of the 1969 LGBTQI riots against the police in New York (so-called "Stonewall riots"), 2019 is for ...Pride an important commemorative moment and an opportunity for reflection. This paper deals with Pride marches and parades as discursive genre, addressing two fundamental questions: what does «Pride» mean today, fifty years after the Stonewall riots? What do people do with «Pride»? By analyzing three 2019 Pride events (in Bologna in Italy, New York and Madrid), the paper describes different ways of organizing and staging Pride events with different meaning effects. In particular, the article will focus on the dichotomy between the parade format and the march format. These two formats (also with their articulation within a same Pride event) show different ways to manage internal differences, conflicts, contingency as well as the relationship with non-LGBTQI subjectivities. The analysis will provide empirical elements for reflecting on the exceptional global success of this event, on the emergence in marches and parades of nationalist, racist and even homotransphobic acts/slogans and on the (intersectional) use of the Pride format in non-LGBTQI activism (but also its appropriation by openly racist groups).
This article explores the politics of response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings, by analysing UK counter-terrorism institutional campaigns in the three years following the attack. By drawing on the ...interpretive category of community/immunity, the semiotic analysis of counter-terrorism campaigns aims to describe their representation of the political community and citizen in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks. The article argues that the counter-terrorism discourse relies on two contrasting tendencies: on the one hand, the unifying force that brings people together in the name of common values; and on the other, the necessity to weaken communitarian bonds in order to allow the citizen to control and check-up on others, reporting "anything suspicious" to authorities. In these texts, the figure of the citizen surveillant clearly emerges. Surveillance activities are shaped around the representation of the terrorist event, from the image of the terrorist in normal everyday life to the actual attacks. Paradoxically this brings about a mimicry effect. The surveillance action carried out by the citizen and the imagined actions of the preparation of a terrorist attack partially overlap in the way they are described and visually represented.
Overview Semiotics has a long and distinguished tradition in Italy. Currently, Semiotics is taught in different universities where structured groups of research work, particularly in Bologna, Torino, ...Roma, Palermo, Siena e Venezia. Main centres of research : Centro di semiotica e teoria dell’immagine Omar Calabrese (Università di Siena, http://www.media.unisi.it/css/centro.html) Centro Internazionale di Studi Interculturali di Semiotica e Morfologia (Università di Urbino, http://semiotica.uni...
Romanzo criminale: la serie portrays Italian history as a continuum of numerous conspiracies and secrets. Based on a semiotic analysis of the TV series, this article argues that this type of ...narrative investigates both the role that media images play in the social understanding of past events, as well as the very role of power in controlling reality. In order to address these issues, the article will focus on the analysis of two plots that run through the series: the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro and the investigation of the murder of Libanese, the first gang leader. Ultimately, an analysis of the last episode will indicate how the series re-establishes masculine and paternal authority, putting forward a specific representation of historical time.
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