Biographical Research. In Italy, Rita Bicchi’s contributions to biographical methods (Bicchi 2000, 2002) and that of Barbara Poggio (2004) are among the landmark contributions to methodological and substantive work Annalisa Tota’s work on collective memory is also an important contribution to this movement – not least in her ethnographic account of the memorialisation of the victims of the Bologna bombings. The strength of oral history and biographical research in Italy is indisputable. Key examples include Alessandro Portelli’s monumental monograph on the 1944 Fosse Ardeatine atrocity in Rome. This is not just an oral history of the event, but – more profoundly – about the ‘public struggle over meaning and memory’ (p. 13). Portelli’s montage of narrative voices reflects the extent to which the ‘Fosse Ardeatine is both an event that actually happened and one that is intensely remembered and conflictually narrated’ (p.15). In a similar vein is Luisa Passerini’s Fascism in Popular Memory, which explores not just popular memories, but also the structuring of narratives and selfpresentations. Passerini emphasises the extent to which ‘personal’ memories deploy cultural forms: ‘The selfimages … introduce us to a narrative universe which revives traditions existing before the interview, adapting them and bringing them up to date’ (p. 60). Passerini’s work is important in demonstrating that narratives do not imply unitary and unproblematic selves. In her monograph on the generation of 1968, Autobiography of a Generation, she suggests: ‘At the roots of our memory, in dozens of lifehistories, I find a rupture. Our identity is constructed on contradictions. Even those stories that emphasize the continuity of their own lives extract from the autobiographical material … recurring themes of division, of difference, of contrast’ (p.22).

Knowing Selves. Biographical Research and European Traditions - The Italian Tradition / Stefania Tirini. - In: INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH. - ISSN 1940-8447. - STAMPA. - (2011), pp. 461-488.

Knowing Selves. Biographical Research and European Traditions - The Italian Tradition

TIRINI, STEFANIA
2011

Abstract

Biographical Research. In Italy, Rita Bicchi’s contributions to biographical methods (Bicchi 2000, 2002) and that of Barbara Poggio (2004) are among the landmark contributions to methodological and substantive work Annalisa Tota’s work on collective memory is also an important contribution to this movement – not least in her ethnographic account of the memorialisation of the victims of the Bologna bombings. The strength of oral history and biographical research in Italy is indisputable. Key examples include Alessandro Portelli’s monumental monograph on the 1944 Fosse Ardeatine atrocity in Rome. This is not just an oral history of the event, but – more profoundly – about the ‘public struggle over meaning and memory’ (p. 13). Portelli’s montage of narrative voices reflects the extent to which the ‘Fosse Ardeatine is both an event that actually happened and one that is intensely remembered and conflictually narrated’ (p.15). In a similar vein is Luisa Passerini’s Fascism in Popular Memory, which explores not just popular memories, but also the structuring of narratives and selfpresentations. Passerini emphasises the extent to which ‘personal’ memories deploy cultural forms: ‘The selfimages … introduce us to a narrative universe which revives traditions existing before the interview, adapting them and bringing them up to date’ (p. 60). Passerini’s work is important in demonstrating that narratives do not imply unitary and unproblematic selves. In her monograph on the generation of 1968, Autobiography of a Generation, she suggests: ‘At the roots of our memory, in dozens of lifehistories, I find a rupture. Our identity is constructed on contradictions. Even those stories that emphasize the continuity of their own lives extract from the autobiographical material … recurring themes of division, of difference, of contrast’ (p.22).
2011
461
488
Stefania Tirini
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Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/885544
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