I canti popolari arbēreshē (italo-albanesi) e la tradizione dei canti popolari italiani

The doctorate thesis, I canti popolari arbëreshë (italo-albanesi) e la tradizione dei canti popolari italiani (The Arbëreshë -Italian-Albanian- popular songs and the tradition of Italian popular songs), is a piece of research into Arbëreshë popular songs compared with the tradition of Southern Italy popular songs, carried out through an interdisciplinary methodology, related to cultural anthropology, comparative literatures, linguistics and dialectology, always verifying historiographical documentation. The starting point is the material collected by the scholars of these communities, already published in some texts, that, however, don’t contain the significant songs of all the areas where the Arbëreshe linguistic minorities live. Even when Italian popular songs collections contain the Arbëreshë popular songs, they seem to be external examples, just to remember that they exist: they are indicated with the title of Canti albanesi (Albanian Songs) and often located at the end of the book, like Canti nuziali nel folklore italiano (Wedding songs in the Italian folklore) by Giuseppe Profeta. Other songs are reported as Albanian songs of that regions where Italian-Albanian communities were settled, like as in the anthology edited by Pier Paolo Pasolini, La poesia popolare italiana (The popular Italian poetry). So, it’s clear that works produced until today brought fragmentary results. Now we want to make a collection of songs divided by themes, arranged chronologically and put in the hystorical – anthropological context where they were generated, using a comparative method that, staring from Italian-Albanian songs, arrives to the texts of other Italian regions. In this way, we can see the fundamental differences and analogies, under a semantic and linguistic profile, and indicate if their origin was cultured or popular. Following the chronological evolution of popular songs, since the first lullabies, sang in a domestic scenario, with their hypnotic melody, it emerged the importance of the mother figure to preserve and respect traditional values. The role of love was fundamental, as well, because it was strictly connected to every aspect of popular life: work in the country and factories, home works, games, fairs, weddings, protest, prison, war and death, that, mainly in the subordinate classes culture, and touched every feeling: from tenderness to anger, from regret to passion, and was expressed through a linguistic structure, that may by very simple in her form, but was extraordinary in her metrics. From the whole scenario it clearly emerges that Italian and Arbëreshe popular cultures were deeply influenced by a strong religious feeling. In particular, in the sacred songs, even if there were expressive ranges “high” or “low”, the two cultures converge frequently, shoving a deep devotion, that create a link with the subordinate classes and ethnic –linguistic minorities. Using texts that are very difficult to find, this piece of research followed the evolution of the Arbëreshe language, highlighting how it transformed itself and spread into the territory, even if its origin was unknown. Also in this case, it was possible to compare different popular expressions, revealing thematic and formal affinities and differences. The huge variety of written texts and he comparison with those come from other regions surely increase the interest for Arbëreshe culture, not only by Italian-Albanian scholars, but also by the Italian ones expert in linguistics and dialectology. [edited by Author]