marcin
(Marcin)
#1
extraneous cultural models. The Italian
society was suspended “between dialect and
Italian” (to quote the title of a well-known
essay by Alberto Sobrero): dialect and
language not interacting dynamically, but
conflictually opposed, because they are the
bearers of cultures wrongly portrayed or
deemed to be impermeable. On the one
hand, a language-culture in “Italian,”
“written,” standardized, centralistic and
monolithic; on the other, a myriad language-
cultures in “dialect,” “oral,” “inferior.”
Inasmuch as it has been subjected to the
burden of this opposition, dialect has
remained the language of the subaltern, the
poor, the voice of a plurality of cultures
about to disintegrate. This phenomenon has
had a clearer effect in the South, where, due
to particular historical circumstances,
dialects have withdrawn even more into a