Le Americhe di Woody Guthrie. Ballate, politica, visioni patriottiche

In American political language, the term «America», unlike «United States», refers to a mythical projection, a dream, a life project that intertwines the individual’s and the Nation’s. It is a form of narrative about the identity of the people and the country, which also encompasses the narrative that various groups in the United States construct about the Nation’s history. Through a transdisciplinary approach, offering methodological and epistemological reflections, The Americas of Woody Guthrie aims to provide a historiographical framework of Woody Guthrie’s vision of America, highlighting the folk singer’s dialogue with the national, local, and international political contexts of his time. In particular, the thesis focuses on Woody Guthrie’s radicalism, also examining populist and union references, and his heterodox dialogue with the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), filtered through the lens of sexuality and feminist factions within the Party. These aspects are mainly found in the second and fourth sections of the thesis – which is divided into five chronological sections, further subdivided into chapters and thematic paragraphs. The primary sources are, in addition to Guthrie’s writings, publications by the CPUSA and several labor unions. Part of the thesis investigates the formation of «imagined communities», particularly regarding the structuring of the folk music canon between the 19th and 20th centuries, and the intertwining of folk music and politics, i.e. the political visions articulated by folklorists and musicians, and the political use of folk music by politicians and propagandists. This research also examines the dialogue with the artistic context of the time and the need, especially expressed by Walt Whitman, for a distinctly American art, where the artist acts as a popular bard. These aspects are investigated particularly in the first two sections of the thesis, drawing on Guthrie’s sources, volumes by 19th- and 20th-century folklorists, as well as literary, musical, historical, and political sources from that era. Despite his radicalism, Guthrie is now a canonized figure, fully integrated into the national Pantheon. This thesis thus examines the process of canonization of the folk singer, dating it earlier than the current state of studies, and the use made of him by politicians, including Republicans, as a source of legitimacy for their speeches in Congress – the analysis of Congressional Records and Committee Meetings in which Guthrie is cited is conducted for the first time in this thesis – or during election campaigns. The final section is dedicated to this topic. Sources, in addition to those previously cited, include Guthrie-related publications up to the present day, newspaper articles, presidential documents, and literary and musical works. Through the prism of international relations history and U.S. political history, an additional innovation is introduced: the analysis of part of Guthrie’s production through the lens of propaganda and cultural diplomacy. This analysis is placed within a reflection on U.S. soft power. These aspects are mainly explored in the third section – which provides an in-depth analysis of Guthrie’s propaganda sources, particularly his radio programs, which have been systematically studied for the first time – and in some chapters of the fourth and fifth sections. The latter sections also focus on themes of veterans, which lacked a previous study, and childhood. Given the complexity and criticism surrounding the term “propaganda,” studies and publications by some of the major propagandists or scholars of propaganda from World War I to the late 20th century were analyzed. In addition to these sources: publications and studies promoted by the U.S. government, its agencies, or the military, as well as some documents from archival collections related to propagandist Edmund Gullion. In this way, the thesis also provides a theory of propaganda connected to political science and international relations theory, also drawing on Foucauldian disciplines. Lastly, Guthrie’s relationship with the color line: a problematic issue that the folk singer sought to address by intertwining his and his family’s history – particularly in relation to his father – with that of the country, an aspect that can be linked to the autobiography of Black Americans. These topics intersect in the final section with Guthrie’s reception among minorities and the theme of the culture wars.