The decade spanning from 1968 to 1980, known also as the anni di piombo, is among the most difficult and traumatic periods in Italian post-war history. One of the most memorable years of this decade was 1977, when a new student movement stood up against the established order. The so-called Movement of ‘77 manifested itself among others in Bologna, where it had a predominantly creative and joyful character. Nevertheless, the protests were violently struck down when left-wing student Francesco Lorusso was killed by police forces during clashes, resulting in an urban guerriglia. This incident worsened the relationship between the historical left and younger generations of (more radical) left-wing activists, and marked the beginning of the end of the Movement of ‘77. The chapter on 1977 was, however, never really closed, and a ‘counter-memory’ has continued to divide the local community ever since. In this article, we shall see how different memory communities in Bologna have dealt with this ‘collective trauma’, focusing on the former Movement of ‘77 and the way it has used public commemorative rituals to rebuild a collective identity for itself in subsequent years.

This article reads David MacDougall's Tempus de Baristas (1993) as an instance of the rejection of the didacticism of documentary films driven by the logic of the written text. This ethnographic film about the life of three goat-herders is one of the films that allows the Sardinian-speaking subjects a space and, therefore, a far more prominent role in the total cinematic construction than has usually been the case. Tempus marks the definitive departure from the transmission of written socio-anthropological knowledge that is typical of expository documentaries. The article concludes that the filmic approach of which Tempus is a landmark produces a corporeal and emplaced knowledge that counterbalances the abstract vision of many documentaries about the author's native island and questions traditional forms of scholarly communication, opening up new areas of ethnographic understanding.

This article focuses on the outcome of an important episode within contemporary Italian culture: the encounter between the world of literature and song, and specifically examines the lyrics written by Pier Paolo Pasolini for the actress and singer Laura Betti for the Giro a Vuoto show, performed in 1960 in Milan. This essay intends to highlight the key elements of this encounter and the characteristic elements of these songs by virtue of textual and stylistic analysis, and provide remarks with regard to the relationship between music, text and singing performance. A study of this kind allows emphasis to be placed on the innovation originating from this distinctive collaboration which represents an important sign of change towards the emergence of a quality song within the mass market which would later come to be defined as canzone d'autore (singer-songwriter genre).

‘Addiopizzo’ (Goodbye protection money) is a grassroots anti-mafia movement based in Palermo that stresses the individual consumer's responsibility for maintaining the Sicilian mafia's pizzo system. If you purchase products from a business that pays the pizzo you are indirectly supporting the mafia. By encouraging Palermitans to buy from ‘pizzo-free’ businesses, Addiopizzo uses the purchasing power of the consumer to fight organised crime. The community of ‘pizzo-free’ businesses is small but steadily growing whilst the number of critical consumers pledging to buy their products appears to have peaked. This article aims to investigate the reasons why consumers may be reluctant to support ‘pizzo-free’ businesses by asking those who have already made public their decision to do so. Whilst critical consumers cannot fully explain why the majority of Palermo's citizens continue to tolerate the pizzo system their attitudes towards them do highlight differences that may help to account for wider non-participation in Addiopizzo's campaign.

This article adopts an interdisciplinary approach to analyse the symbolic religious language utilised by mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano in his social interactions with the lower echelons of the Sicilian mafia. When Provenzano assumed control of Cosa Nostra in the 1990s, he inherited an organisation severely diminished by a decade of internal conflicts, violence and the arrest of numerous leaders. The article argues that religious performative behaviour and language were used by the mafia boss to establish his leadership over Cosa Nostra, reshape its internal structure, and thereby revitalise an organisation in apparent terminal decline.

The author contends that Leonardo Sciascia's L'affaire Moro is not a work of non-fiction, as Sciascia proposed, but of historical fiction, and that Sciascia's Moro is a literary character, more a spokesperson for Sciascia's political views than a reflection of the historical figure. Sciascia's Moro embodies the same qualities as many of Sciascia's other protagonists, such as a radical individualism and willingness to sacrifice all in order to protect their dignity and liberty. What emanates from the text is a ‘postmodern’ blend that interprets and imposes a narrative hierarchy on events, and conveys a mental reality that need not necessarily coincide with what can be proven with evidence. In fact, Sciascia combines factual information and his own ‘conjectural knowledge’ to convince his reader of the ‘moral truth’ of his argument. Sciascia's is indeed a strong narrative in that it succeeded in shaping how the Italian public views to this day a critical juncture in its recent history.

L'articolo analizza Tempus de Baristas (1993), un film del regista di cinema etnografico David MacDougall. Il film si distingue per il rifiuto di affidare la rappresentazione dei protagonisti e delle loro vite alla logica del commento fuori campo. L'esperienza dei tre pastori sardi su cui il film è incentrato è colta visivamente e rivelata allo spettatore secondo i modi di una prospettiva fenomenologica lontana dalla trasmissione testuale di conoscenza antropologica. Piò in generale, l'articolo suggerisce che l'impiego di strumenti audio-visuali è capace di produrre un tipo di conoscenza corporea e situata che controbilancia la visione astratta di numerosi documentari dedicati alla Sardegna e di mettere in discussione i metodi e canoni tradizionali di trasmissione e comunicazione della conoscenza accademica.