The transition
from a rural society
to an industrial one
to a post-industrial one
Analysis of some social problems - in the popular songs
emigration war
work
hope in a better world
Comparison with an European reality: the Germany
This is a project of research about popular songs produced with one of my classes, made up of seventeen years old students of a commercial high school.
Singing is a poetic way of expression of the human soul and histories, a way of communication, of information, a most valuable collection of memories, of ancient histories, and it's also a spontaneous way of denouncing historical truth, a collective memory of humble people's history and of history seen with humble people's eyes, particularly in the past, when there weren't the mighty mass-media of our days and most of the people were illiterate.
That's why we choose a project of research about popular songs: not to lose the pleasure for singing and listening to songs, to get used to the work of collectors of memories of the past that allow us to give a sense to our present life, to become able to bring out the endless cultural heritage that's inside the documents collected, to compare past and present time.
It's also important to notice the fact that young people understand better the language of music and songs rather than lots of boring books and, in this project, the popular song has been just an instrument to investigate some themes connected to the transition from a rural society to an industrial one, from an Absolute State to a Liberal one (with the concept of citizenship and with the acknowledgement of a series of human rights).
So we carried on a research, particularly concentrating on the following topics:
- rice-fields and the life of rice-weeder, as an example of rural work;
- the Leumann village, as an example of industrial activity and of a particular kind of capitalism;
- the Italian emigration in foreign countries
- the times of war, of struggle, of hope.
Laura Poli
Teacher of Economics and Law
at the "Oscar Romero"
Commercial High School
Rivoli (TO) - Italy
e-mail polil@inrete.it