SUMMARY IN ENGLISH
Nowadays popular music is invading our daily lives more and more. Music is everywhere: in supermarkets, waitingrooms and even out on the street. It’s also making its way into literature, as foremost Anglo-American publishers are now selling books that include cds with the ‘soundtracks’ of the novels in question, a phenomenon which is also growing in Italy. It is therefore not strange that cultural studies are becoming more popular amongst scholars.Focusing on the theories of James Lull and Simon Frith in particular, I have outlined three main functions of popular music: music as a creatorof a cultural identity, music as means of ‘putting into words’ emotions, and finally, music as remembering the past.
The first Italian writer that ever attempted to combine literature and popular music is Pier Vittorio Tondelli (1955-1991), known foremost for his debut novel Altri libertini (1980), whichcaused a small scandal at its release, due to the explicit language and themes of the novel. ThoughTondelli has never become an acknowledged author within the Italian literary canon, the linguistic and stylistic novelty of this work in particular has not had a small impact on the further development of literature in Italy.Furthermore, Tondelligave many young aspiring authors a headstart, playing a crucial role in stimulating and promoting youth literature.
At the beginning of an erathat saw thestrong ideologies of the 1970s make wayfor a more individualistic way of life, Tondelli left behind him the experimental and politically engaged works which dominated Post-War literary production.Moving on to a more concrete and down to earth type of literature,Tondelli focused on contemporary themes, such as the struggles of his generation with a sense of emptiness and loss of collective identity, trying to re-establish a sense of “being a part of”.This has been in vain, for times have changed, and only music - through its capacity of bringing back old times - seems capable of binding the individual members of a generation,thus regaining a slight sense of collective identity.
If Tondelli’s generation is then struggling with a sense of identity, how do younger generations, such as that of Enrico Brizzi’s (1974), manage? In the second part of my thesis I have examined the debut novel of this young author, Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo (1994), whose approach to the identity crisis, typical of postmodern literature, is very different from Tondelli’s: Brizzi does not retreat in his solitary shell, as Tondelli eventually does, though promotes a vital philosophy of action and movement, which is symbolised by the bicycle of the protagonist Alex. In escaping the boredom and conformity to which Alex’ parents and schoolmates subdue, his bicycle is the uttermost symbol of freedom: breaking away of the confinement within closed spaces (home, school) Alex finds a solution in the liberty of the open air and the independence of the bicycle. His ‘leaving the band’ means taking a personal path, though not solitary, nor individual: “Alone against all, but not in solitude. In a group, against all”. Music here is part of the liberation from the limiting structures pre-established by adults. Not so much a means of remembering old times, it expresses sentiments and experiences common to the different members of a generation (broken heart, being in love, rebellion against parents).
In both cases, music thus functions as a means of giving an identity to those that belong to the same ‘group’, either by evoking memories (as in the case of Tondelli) or by representing emotions and states of mind common to all that belong to a determined age group (Brizzi). Tondelli however fails to regain a sense of collective identity, whilst Brizzi - grown up in a less ideologically marked society - is perhaps more realistic, finding a means to convert the individualistic condition of his generation into a more authentic way of facing the world.