La
storia dell’Italia nella vita di un paese agricolo del Mantovano
di Bruno Cartosio Quando
Bosio morì, nel 1971, lasciò incompleto e privo delle revisioni finali
il libro cui aveva già dato il titolo II trattore ad Acquanegra
e al quale aveva lavorato in modo discontinuo per oltre dieci anni.
Alcune parti erano già state pubblicate negli anni precedenti su varie
riviste storiche ma è solo ora che, grazie alla cura e alla passione di
Cesare Bermani, il libro ha potuto vedere la luce presso l’editore De
Donato. Non si tratta dl un avvenimento di poco conto. Il
Trattore è importante per almeno due ordini di motivi: come
storia di una comunità contadina all'interno delle più generali
trasformazioni economico- sociali dell'agricoltura padana e come
sintesio più che paradigmatica di tutto quello che Bosio riteneva
dovesse riassumersi nel mestiere di storico. La
storia di Acquanegra sul Chiese, paese agricolo del mantovano, si snoda
tra gli ultimi decenni dell’ottocento e la seconda guerra mondiale,
sempre compresa tra i due estremi rappresentati dai grandi avvenimenti
che investono l’Italia intera e dai piccoli eventi che caratterizzano
più da vicino i rapporti sociali, i luoghi fisici, la cultura materiale
e le vicende politiche locali. Un esempio: «Nell’ottobre del 1922
Vasco Grazioli portava ad Acquanegra il primo trattore che era poi il
secondo della provincia di Mantova. Si trattava di un Ford da lire
ventunomila…». Questo l’attacco del terzo capitolo. Dal trattore al
cavallo, in cui il fatto fondamentale della meccanizzazione delle
campagne viene prima ridotto alla dimensione acquanegrese (per dieci
anni ancora «nelle stalle, per le strade, l’elemento predominante
restavano i buoi e i cavalli») poi diventa l’occasione per l’esame
del resistente sapere contadino (dalla caccia e dalla pesca alle erbe
curative e all’ «intelligenza delle bestie nel secondo racconto di
Belòchio»). Infine, per distinguere il filo sottile della «sopravvivenza
di una comunità prevalentemente basata su un’economia naturale» e
per ritrovare «il proprio di questa civiltà», il capitolo risalirà
al «periodo che va dalla riforma teresiana del catasto al ’59, cioè
all’unità d’Italia». Negli
altri capitoli il percorso non sarà all’indietro come qui. In tutti,
però, Bosio proporrà una sintesi analoga di piccola e grande storia,
di fonti orali e scritte, di sapere folkloristico e filologico. Nei modi
di ricostruire i soggetti e le dinamiche che presiedono all’«evolversi
e […] al frantumarsi della cultura e della comunità contadina di
Acquanegra» si caratterizza la sua proposta metodologica. Il
progressivo superamento degli steccati disciplinari verificabile nella
stesura del Trattore documenta il percorso compiuto da Bosio
stesso nel corso degli anni ’60. La sua prospettiva dal basso di
storico del movimento operaio e socialista si arricchisce prima nelle
attività di ricerca e riproposizione del canto sociale attraverso il
Nuovo canzoniere italiano, poi nell’iniziativa ambiziosa di un centro
per la raccolta e la sistemazione della cultura delle classi non
egemoni. Sarà questo l’Istituto Ernesto de Martino, il cui primo
fondo è costituito proprio dal blocco di materiali orali fin lì
raccolti da Bosio ad Acquanegra. L’evolversi della scrittura nel
Trattore, ripercorso da Bermani nella sua nota, è guidato da una logica
che Bosio sintetizzerà in un saggio del 1966, Elogio del magnetofono,
che doveva fungere da traccia di lavoro per l’appena sorto istituto.
Se le divisioni tra le discipline, scriveva Bosio, sono state funzionali
al rafforzamento del potere, la loro negazione dovrà essere attuata e
volta alla lotta per il socialismo. «Il
contrasto fra campo dell’etnologia e campo della storia e,
all’interno della storia, tra storia vera cioè grande e trapassata, e
non storia cioè piccola e presente, è una speciosa suddivisione
derivata dall’accettazione della società divisa in classi». Nel
libro, però. Questo schematismo da bozza programmatica non esiste, il
rapporto tra il piano delle istituzioni economico-politiche e quello del
«popolo» e delle classi è ricco e articolato. Bosio emerge come
grande storico sociale. Insieme agli Scritti dal 1942 al 1948,
anch’essi raccolti da Bermani per G. Arcari editore e la Lega di
cultura di Piàdena nell’inverno scorso, il Trattore ripropone
però anche, tutt’intera, la figura di militante e ricercatore di
Gianni Bosio, rendendo infine giustizia a una delle figure più vive
della cultura socialista italiana del dopoguerra. («Il globo», Milano, 25 ottobre 1982
Il
trattore ad Acquanegra. Piccola e grande storia in una comunità
by
Gianni Bosio. Bari: De Donato, 1981. liv, 284 pp. Lit. l3.000. Italian
oral history experienced its first era of growth from the end of the
1940s to the late 1960s. A second period of productivity, beginning with
the 1970s, has thus far been characterized by an emphasis on cultural
rather than political issues. In contrast, the first period of oral
history was marked by a close relationship between ethno-anthropological
disciplines and an interest by intellectuals in the struggles of the
labor movement. Contributions to the collection and analysis of oral
sources came mainly from folklorists and ethno-musicologists, while
historians (especially contemporary historians) hardly noticed the world
of popular culture. A second aspect of this early flowering of oral
history, linked with the first, was an attention to the theoretical
implications of the study of folklore in industrial societies. The hope
of founding a new culture with strong roots in popular traditions was
encouraged by the influence of Antonio Gramsci's 0sservazioni sul
folclore (in his Quaderni del carcere), but clearly it had
its origin in the enthusiasm for social innovation which followed the
liberation from Fascism. This
volume by Gianni Bosio seems to be both representative of the earlier
approach to oral history in Italy and the forerunner of later trends.
The book is published posthumously, although some parts have already
appeared as articles. The author worked at it intermittently from the
end of the l950s to his death in 197l. In spite of its unfinished
nature, Il trattore shows a remarkable unity of style; the
complexity of the plot does not obscure the intentions of the general
plan. The reader is also aided by the introduction and notes of its
editor, Cesare Bermani, a friend and collaborator of Bosio. Il
trattore is a work of local history, reconstructing periods in
the life of the community of Acquanegra sul Chiese (near Mantova), where
Bosio was born in 1923, during the years between 1868 and World War II.
The last two chapters, on the Resistance and the subsequent integration
of the community into a mass society, remain in an unfinished state. The
novelty of this book for Italian scholarship consists in the importance
given to oral sources. They are considered not only as complementary to
the information found in written sources, but as revelatory of an
autonomous reality-oral culture. Indeed, in this book we see the triumph
of orality, reconstructed in social places such as the inn and the piazza.
Some of its characters are already “figures of memory”, since
their adventures are retold to Bosio in the form of anecdotes and
legends. In other cases, the author himself acts as informer and
remembers elements of the community's history. The result of this collection of memories is the historical picture of a
system of oral communication, albeit sometimes deformed by written
translation. The picture includes anecdotes, songs, witty remarks
repeated from generation to generation, poems, political hymns.
preachings from the pulpit, records of trials, minutes of the societies
established by local workers, and stories and tales told on summer
evenings. Also included are war memories of extraordinary storytellers
such as Belòchio, and episodes contrasting Fascist songs on the one
hand with anarchist and socialist songs on the other. And there are
still other forms of orality: rhymes, proverbs, riddles, quarrels,
discussions. and testimonies of men and women on their own lives and on
the community, preserved by Bosio's notes or taperecorder. (Let us not
forget that Bosio is the author of that remarkable 1966 essay
"Elogio del magnetofono" - "In Praise of the
Taperecorder" - where the instrument is given a place in history
comparable to the invention of the printing press, and is described as
essential for the expression and consciousness-raising of oral cultures
which were repressed.) The culture revealed by these forms of oral communication is set against
the background of the history of Acquanegra, from its existence as a
rather progressive village at the turn of the century (a few factories,
flourishing artisans, a socialist club) to the decline of its economy,
accompanied by a growing separation between the agricultural and the
industrial spheres under the Fascist administration between the wars.
The tractor is the symbol of the lost occasion, a possible means of
integrating mechanization and rural development. The first tractor (a
Ford) had been purchased in 1922; in 1930 there were only twelve, not
enough to change significantly the economy of Acquanegra. Here Bosio
makes a long digression on the economic history of the area since 1700,
but the following chapter is again based on oral sources and describes
the year's cycle, with its monthly agricultural tasks, rites, and
stories. To give an idea of the wealth of the material under
consideration, one must notice that a number of written sources are
employed-newspapers, diaries, official inquiries, documents from the
parish. and the Municipal Council, along with secondary sources.
Throughout, the image is given of a rural society increasingly deprived
of the advantages of the old rural world and "conquered by the
contradictions of industrial capitalism. " In his research on the culture of the people, Bosio produces his own
testimony as an intellectual. His effort to understand the meaning of
the apparently irrelevant ("what is small, particular,
precise") is the basis of a rediscovered "philologism"- a
lesson to be learned over and over again. There is considerable
attention to and respect for the spoken word, the rhythms and the
dialects in their finest nuances. This effort coincides with the search
for a meaning in the work of engaged intellectuals, indeed for cultural
work as such. Bosio believed that it was necessary to conceive of
cultural work according to a strategic plan. He had begun a plan for the
creation of a federation of leghe di cultura (cultural leagues),
with the purpose of understanding and making known to the working class
the culture it already has. This is why he was such a leading force in
the creation of the "Istituto Ernesto De Martino" in 1965-66.
Bosio wanted it to be a free institution, aimed at the "critical
knowledge and the alternative presence of a popular and proletarian
world. " Nevertheless, Il trattore is not directly concerned with the
theoretical and political aspects of Bosio's research. In it oral
sources are dominant and orality becomes the expression of a people's
culture -"to speak was what united, it was the link and the means
of transmission." In his recovery of oral culture, Bosio is
sometimes too rigid in dividing it from "learned culture,"
which he considers a "foreign body." But my only major
criticism of this volume has to do with the creation of a historical critique
for oral sources. I agree with Bosio - although we use different
formulations - that oral sources can help us to interpret cultural
phenomena, work and production, and social relations. My own experience,
however, shows that three different procedures are required to use oral
sources for these different levels of reality. In Bosio's work the
differentiation between the various levels, as well as between
historical procedures, is insufficient; therefore, the history of
tradition is stretched to become social history and forms of
communication are superimposed upon forms of life and social relations. Despite
this weakness, Bosio's book is extremely valuable. An analysis must
still be done of the limitations and strengths of what I have called the
first period of Italian oral history. Some of its achievements we should
recognize, and we should not forget that some of that era's unsolved
problems are still implicit in our own work, setting traps in our path.
For instance, there is often insufficient differentiation between levels
of memory, which results in the transformation of traditions into facts
and thereby denies tradition its true form of existence. Lack of
interest in these subtleties sometimes derives from the best intentions.
In the case of Gianni Bosio, I am convinced that one of the reasons for
him not going further (and I have implied that he went a long way) was
his belief in an intimate connection between culture and politics. But a
full examination of this point will require a reassessment of such a
relationship in the Italian New Left and its forerunners. It may well be
that oral history will help us to understand whether it is possible to
define the political meaning of culture in a way which does not threaten
its autonomy. |