Bella ciao

Political Music

This quarter I have enjoyed the discussions of music as part of the art of resistance. In my first essay I wrote about a connection between my piece and Pete Seeger's protest song "If I Had a Hammer" (Enos 6). I liked Professor Robertson's presentation of Paul Robeson's performance at the construction of the Sydney Opera House as an example of communist international worldbuilding through connections and figures. I was particularly enthused by Professor Wasserstrom's discussion of "Revolution" by The Beatles because I have listened to that song for many years without seriously looking into its context and it was enlightening to hear Professor Wasserstrom expand on how rock and communism interacted at that time and why "Revolution" condemned affiliation with Mao.

As we covered image and film in our essays, I saw it fitting that I engage with music as another key area of art especially for revolutionary movements. Thus, I will analyze the role of the 19th century Italian protest song "Bella ciao" (which I discovered from the TV show La casa de papel) in various worldbuilding projects through the 21st century.

Portability

Salerno and Warenburg identify "Bella ciao" as "universally portable," able to be easily adapted to a variety of situations, especially advocacy (165). They argue that the fact that "Bella ciao" was for many years sung but not written, an oral song, contributes to people's ability to adapt it to whatever context in which it fits (169). Its rhythm is at marching tempo and easy to follow, making it perfect for a protest chant (170). Its lyrics, even without modification to the context, tell the story of a hero struggling and sacrificing themself for a just cause, a universal aspect of protest (170).

In particular, the hero creates a "duty to remember," obligating future generations of protesters to honor their advocate heritage by continuing to use "Bella ciao" (170). Forming a positive feedback loop, every use of "Bella ciao" at a protest further associates the song with rebellion perpetuates its ability to communicate struggle (179). "Bella ciao" passes ingeniously, almost inevitably through time to support new productive meanings.

Reflection

My understanding of worldbuilding has flourished in the past two quarters. Before entering Humanities Core, I was a little dismayed with our theme because I thought worldbuilding would be boring; I thought it was a stagnant field, at best changing only microscopically through natural interactions. I also thought I would not enjoy the modular nature of Humanities Core because I preferred to focus on a few certain areas of study for long periods of time. Now I see worldbuilding as a broad and interesting field of study that encompasses micro-natural changes as well as artificial and grand changes or even hugely divergent, almost completely new worlds.

Worldbuilding's being so broad has allowed me to fully play with the ideas developed in class; the pages of this archive is thematically pretty disjoint, but I enjoyed making all of them. However, as writing is my main mode of communication in general, it has been difficult to sacrifice text space to other modes. Making this page about "Bella ciao" with a story map makes me think I might enjoy other modes more if I come at them from a technical or textual perspective. For example, I might next quarter edit sounds or videos to put into the site, or even make a more complex program that is more specific to my needs.

Taking from the other disciplines I am interested in, which I thought worldbuilding was not up to par with, I am particularly interested in how worldbuilding can be used to create positive spaces, especially queer-positive spaces. I have taken notes throughout the two quarters at various events in which I believe worldbuilding to be at play, like the Queering Free Speech panel and various clubs (queer and not) that I attend. Thus, at the moment I am interested in pursuing some primary source related to feminism, perhaps second wave.

References

Enos, Rose. "My Eyes Are Up Here: Insistent Subjectification in Carrie Mae Weems's A Veiled Woman." 2024, docs.google.com/document/d/1GB2ESYv_53Uu88wgE3VUuTyna53GSXdJ0RoiCY3VG4o.

Robertson, James M. "The Worlds of Communism." Humanities 1B, 1 February 2024, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA. Lecture.

Salerno, Daniele and Marit van de Warenburg. "'Bella ciao': A portable monument for transational activism." International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 26, no. 2, 2023, pp. 164–181, doi.org/10.1177/13678779221145374.

Wasserstrom, Jeffrey. "Resistance, Reform, & Revolution, 1900–1949." Humanities 1B, 28 February 2024, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA. Lecture.

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