Living Memory: The Social Aesthetics of Language in a Northern Italian Town

Living Memory investigates the complex question of language and its place at the heart of Bergamasco culture in northern Italy.

• Integrates extensive participant observation with sociolinguistic data collection

• Reveals the political and social dynamics of a national language (Italian) and a local dialect (Bergamasco) struggling for survival

• Introduces the original concept of the “social aesthetics of language”: the interweaving of culturally-shaped and emotionally felt dimensions of language-choice

• Written to be accessible to students and specialists alike

Avainsanat: anthropology, social memory, Italy, Bergamasco, Europe, language and culture, ethnography