IL DIPARTIMENTO
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Surely analysing the books which we’re all reading, and the films that we’re all
watching, tells us more about us as a society than a 700 year old poet who can’t
gaze upon his beloved without going weak in the knees and locking himself in his
room to write a poem about it?
While to us, a mere repetition of the famous line has us on the
floor in stitches, to a Spaniard or an Italian, it would elicit mere
confusion. The truth is that it’s a uniquely British joke, which
touches on such elements of our society as the fear of speaking
the unspeakable, the desperation not to offend at all costs, the
central role of WWII in British cultural identity, and much more
besides. All that from 10 seconds of a borderline slapstick sitcom.
Try learning that much about modern-day Britain from The
Canterbury Tales.
The only thing that changes between high and low-brow culture
is the way in which we should study them. While we might read
Dante for the literary analysis itself, we would analyse giallo
[crime] literature in the wider context of our society; why it appeals to people, what are the recurring themes, how we identify
with certain characters.
Whilst both have academic merit, if pressed, I believe most
people would struggle to explain why the more important of the
two is for us to understand how Dante uses the formal conjugation of verbs to refer to his beloved. In reality, we continue to
prioritise the high-brow out of some outdated notion that it’s
what “should” be studied, because it’s what we’ve always studied.
There is of course a place for the high-brow. I’m not suggesting
for a second that Italian towns should replace the town-square
statues of Garibaldi with equally inspiring ones of Pirlo. Just
that, at least at university, there should be space on the plinth for
them to stand side by side.