Sulle tracce della memoria della Grande Guerra. Uno studio su alcune pratiche sociali del ricordo della Prima Guerra mondiale in un contesto transnazionale: musei, esperienze e rievocazioni; performance ed edutainment

É. Durkheim’s studies about ancient religions highlight that man is socially determined and only through social categories he can interact and exchange meanings with the reference group. Social categories are not priori, but they are built during ritual ceremonies: moments of collective effervescence. Only during these moments the individual traces the collective categories. Durkheimian studies were the basis for the reflection of the sociologist of memory par excellence M. Halbwachs, who introduced the concept of social frameworks of memory, individual and collective memory. According to the sociologist of Strasbourg, individual memories emerge and are rebuilt only through social relations because only the encounter and the confrontation with the collective memory of the target group, the past can be reconstructed. It is the action in the present time that allow memories to resurface, be understood and incorporated into the wider collective dimension. Subsequent critiques at M. Halbwachs’s first publication, led him to redefine the relationship between the two memories: individual memory becomes one of the points of view of the collective memory, the point of view that changes according to the individual’s target groups.The definition of multi memberships, typical of modern society, allowed G. Namer to introduce the concept of social memory, i.e. those residues of collective memory that are waiting to be revitalized.My consideration about the social memory of WWI led me to consider the practices of memory, such as WWI museums and historical re-enactments, the spaces to identify and analyze the tools to revitalize the centennial memory, that now is without direct witnesses and specific reference group. The memory that I analized is a social memory, therefore it takes several narrative forms which can ensure the transmission of symbols, values and traces that from the past reach the present, in order to be communicated to future generations thanks to the flows of thought. The narrative forms taken from the memory in the present time revitalize the personal memories, allowing individuals to reconnect the weak links with the family memory, or discover and rediscover the symbols that make collective memory.The interpretations that have enabled me to read in a counterintuitive way the practices of memory are two: the practice of memory as a performance and the practice of memory as a form of edutainment. Through sessions of participant observation, semi-structured interviews with open questions administered to users of museums, semi-structured interviews with participants in the “Viaggio nella memoria” and with the re-enactors, I was able to identify the elements that have ensured the emotional involvement that enables the social memory to return to being a collective memory.