Presa della parola : A review and discussion of oral history and the Italian 1968

Abstract

Among the common definitions of 1968, the most telling is that of a collective presa della parola (the capture of speech, or the act of starting to speak). Students, workers, women and ‘ordinary’ people began to speak out and speak for themselves, refusing the established systems of representation and delegation in the name of participation and direct democracy. In Italy, the development of oral history owed much to the participatory and democratising ethos of 1968, and oral history has long been viewed as a methodology enabling a collective presa della parola. Exploring the body of historical works on the Italian 1968, this article looks at the contribution oral history has made to a better understanding of the student revolt and the social movements in the late 1960s and 1970s. Attention is directed to the diversity of ways in which oral sources are used in historical research, to their potential and limits for studying past events, experience, subjectivity and memory, and to some key theoretical and methodological issues raised by their use.