With Nuto Revelli rediscover the Italy of War and not the protagonists of
Luca Meneghel July 5, 2009 The Alpine
on the Russian front
Town, memoirist, novelist. But, to quote his own words, simple self-taught. " All this and more was Nuto Revelli, the Piedmontese writer who has devoted much of his life to encounter the "last". To discover an author as eclectic, "the West" interviewed Luisa Passerini , docente di Storia culturale all’Università di Torino, che ha conosciuto e frequentato personalmente quell’uomo “insieme brusco e profondamente mite”. Con lei ripercorriamo le tappe di una straordinaria avventura intellettuale, tra soldati al fronte e poveri contadini al cospetto della modernità.
Professoressa, come si è avvicinata a Nuto Revelli?
Mi avvicinai a Nuto Revelli - che già conoscevo alla lontana per altri suoi scritti e gesti - leggendo Il mondo dei vinti, la cui uscita, nel 1977, si situava in un momento del mio sviluppo intellettuale e professionale che andava in una direzione affine. Nella seconda metà degli anni Settanta, mi ero infatti appassionata alla oral history, in its practice and its theoretical aspects. Given the premises from where it started, it was not easy for me to come to terms - if I may say so - with the work of Revelli, who sovereignly crossed all the red tape and methodological discipline. I was intent to make a challenge than the traditional historiography, which, however, claim the right to membership of both the oral history is my own.
He, however, was far from traditional historiography
... It took time for me to experience and appreciate the contribution of Revelli, so free from constraints, even those who, like me, they allowed - if properly challenged - by reach new frontiers widening the existing disciplinary territories. Revelli did not need to prove anything and did not let no one regiment from the fence, was skeptical, and rightly so, even to the possibility of being classified as an oral historian, despite his great contributions to the collection and processing of orality. She has personally known
Revelli. What do you remember of your meetings?
I had the good fortune to meet in person Nuto Revelli, during a series of meetings organized with other friends and colleagues, University of Torino and Istituto Gramsci, in the late seventies and early eighties. Direct contact with its way of doing that was both abrupt and profoundly gentle, made me understand much of the spirit in which he moved his work. I saw him several times, going to visit him at his home in Cuneo, interviewing, meeting at the Castello di Verduno where he spent the holidays and I was always struck by the mixture of extreme humanity - that made him so fine and nice - and open-mindedness and intransigence which characterized both the man and the intellectual. Some later works, such as the dispersed of Marburg and the priest just confirmed these impressions. Country
From Russia to the partisan struggle. What was for him the war? A key aspect of the attitude of
Nuto Revelli on the war, including partisan I was deeply impressed and inspired my understanding of the attitude that we all have, if they were capable. It 's based on the belief that armed violence and organized and also practice must be addressed when absolutely necessary, including extreme steps such as executing an enemy or a traitor. However, these decisions must constantly be able to contain themselves in their opposite, that is never to give space to the satisfaction of the violence, but rather he always had an awareness of the costs involved put it into action. We felt that this awareness had animated the actions and thoughts of Nuto Revelli, including its intellectual work. What binds the
Revelli memorials to the narrator? Which of the two forms of writing is more convincing?
I do not think we should make no separation between the two forms of writing, let alone believe that one is more convincing than the other. On the contrary, they are in a relationship of mutual influence and illuminate each other. Revelli's inspiration is always historical, always in search of a sense of something that happened, even where it remains mysterious, and yet its history is interwoven with the ability to narrate, ranging from oral to written record.
The other major theme is the world Revelli farmer, grappling with the advent of industrialization and mass society. What led you to this reality?
As he himself declared, Revelli considered to have ended, with Mai and later the war of the poor, his autobiographical speech, and a switch to collect documents on the experience of those who had experienced the same events by other means? with another language, being peasants and workers, or ordinary soldiers rather than officers. The drive towards the transition from self to others was already present previously, but the impulse, as recounted in an interview Revelli, had been sent back to complete the autobiographical work.
short, after speaking of his experience the author has heard il bisogno di dare la voce agli “ultimi”…
Il passaggio da sé agli altri diventò una risposta al bisogno di far parlare quelli che altrimenti non avrebbero mai parlato. Nacque così una straordinaria combinazione di oralità e scrittura, che mostra una sostanziale continuità di ispirazione con le opere precedenti, ma anche una grande capacità di attenzione non solo verso gli aspetti arcaici, ma anche verso le forme di modernità presenti nel mondo contadino. Era il suo modo di renderlo attuale, di inserire quel mondo nella sfera pubblica contemporanea e denunciare l’ingiustizia del contesto complessivo.
Professoressa, lei è molto attenta allo studio delle fonti orali. Ci può raccontare come ha Revelli worked to build the two books on the rural world?
I well remember the meeting where he exhibited his Revelli same criteria to go by the testimony to writing in regard to those two books. The assumption was an interview conducted with all due respect of the kinds of relationships between people, even in the ritual, but leave enough space to exchange frank and sometimes confidential, even with women. Revelli not always used the recorder, but frankly admitted it was wrong and recognized him as a valuable tool. What happened after obtaining the testimony was a long process of filing and translation. She was always very careful, he said, not to cut pieces that were essential to the wholeness of the person, as if it had been cut off an arm or a leg. A very delicate
... It was a job very long, with thoughts, attempts, corrections, which ultimately lead to an outcome at the same time very faithful and very innovative, which produced a third register from orality and writing, characterized inter alia by the constant presence of dialogue and the multiplicity of languages. In particular, the strong link opens new perspectives for an understanding of narrative differentiated on the basis of gender and generation, because in it there are testimonies of women from very different age groups and different geographical and cultural origins. Overall, both texts show an active inter-work between the author and his witnesses.
last question. Revelli said that today's youth is impossible to carry out research as those he made in Piedmont and Calabria takes time, patience and financial security. Do you agree with him? There have been other studies of this kind?
I do not think there are really comparable to his research in amplitude and in quality, but I think there are many studies that reflect the spirit and following at least once gave the example Revelli, in turn suggesting an inspiration and a specific intersubjectivity. I need only mention the thesis, conducted with passion and participation, with richness and precision that document the lives of villages, social groups, individuals, and constitute a valuable contribution, even if they remain poorly understood, in a research such as the oral history.
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