Abstract
The research we are going to illustrate is focused on visual and linguistic representations which people give of their own places of origin. Interviewees were asked to make a drawing representing their own places of origin and they were also asked to write a short explanation or commentary on the back side of the drawing. The team included nine people who are scholars from different disciplines such as Semiotics, Psychology and Geography. My personal contribution to this work, in addition to the supervision assignment, is focused on a semiotic classification of genres of maps based on specific semiotic layers of the drawings.
This work will hopefully show that different disciplines can cooperate, even though each of them maintains its specificity. The interviewees were mostly students, in their early twenties, who were attending different Universities in Italy, in Oregon and in Belgium. They came from many countries, hence the comparison between different cultures and backgrounds is one of the most interesting aspects of the research.
We aim at answering some questions: (1) how visual language and verbal language integrate each other in the reconstruction of a memory (2) how people nowadays experience the memories of their places of origin, in an era marked by large displacements and diminished sense of belonging to a place (3) how the past is expressed through its spatial dimension; (4) how cognitive and emotional components (positive/negative feelings towards the place of origin, how deeply a subject feels to be tied to that place, etc.) work together in the reconstruction of the past.
These essays help us understand not only what home means for each of us, but how the idea of home shapes our place in the world. (Akiko Bush, Geographies of Home: Writings on where we Live, 1999)
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Notes
- 1.
The study has been published as Pozzato 2018 (series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology). A further development of our research will constitute one of the Bolognese sections of the PRIN (Progetto di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale) Cognition and Performativity, to be led by Professor Antonino Pennisi (University of Messina).
- 2.
These are just some of the non-Italian localities represented in this survey: Albania – Bashkia Durres; Argentina- Buenos Aires (Belgrano); Argentina- Caleta Olivia; Belgium-Tervuren; Belgium-Gant; Belgium-Liège; Brazil-Curitiba; Brazil-Fortaleza; California-Live Oak (US); California-San Rafael (US); Cameroon- Youndé; Colorado- Denver; Germany- Bruchsal; Greece- Lesvos; Iran -Teheran (Mara); Moldavia-Bardar; Poland- Konskie; Rep. Santo Domingo-Santo Domingo (Simon Bolivar district); Romania- Bucharest; Romania- Onesti; Russia-Moscow; Spain, Canary Islands-Las Canteras; Spain- Murcia; Syria-Idlib; Turkey- Ankara; Alaska- Paxon (US); Missouri- Freemar (US); New York- Niskayuna (US); Ontario- Walworth (US); Oregon-Corvallis (US); Oregon, Eugene (US); Oregon- Oregon City (US); Oregon- Portland (US).
- 3.
For example Margherita Murgiano takes into account Semiotics and the linguistic of Sign Language; Enzo D’Armenio relates aesthetic theories and media theories; and Giulia Mazzeo’s contribution connects the different fields of cognitive, environmental and clinical Psychology.
- 4.
Spencer and Dixon, 1982, p. 373. These authors also underline how many individual differences characterized these “affective maps” and how important future empirical research in environmental perception is: “Although considerable individual differences in style of affective mapping were found in this study, these did not relate to indices of environmental sensitivity, or to the sex or previous mobility of the subject; nor did such stylistic differences indicate that consensual images of places failed to emerge. Rather, Environmental A proved to be a mapping language sensitive enough to measure consensus feelings about the city’s different sub-areas; and it is recommended that further use is made of the language in future empirical research in environmental perception.” (ibidem).
- 5.
The authors of the drawings have given us permission to publish them.
- 6.
As shortly mentioned, Giulia Mazzeo belongs to the Scuola Bolognese di Psicoterapia Cognitiva (SBPC), inspired by the same principles of the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapy (EABCT). This approach suited to our research because consists in a strategic action on the totality of cognitive and affective modalities of the individual. In this kind of therapy, there is first an inquiry about the cognitive and emotional world of a person; and a second phase which aims to make people more aware and able to review, reorder and accept their personal history. The drawing and telling activities of our research have something similar to those of the setting of this kind of therapy.
- 7.
We refer in particular to the article “Manières de voir, manière de figurer” (Descola 2010). Some examples and explanations that we will use also stem from the seminar that Descola held at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici of the University of Bologna on 26–28 May 2016, and which will be part of a book in preparation, on the anthropology of images.
- 8.
See the opposition between epos and novel in Todorov 1978.
- 9.
“Io sento d’avere due luoghi d’origine, due terre che mi riportano alla memoria i momenti migliori della mia infanzia, e non riesco ad escludere nessuno di questi due posti. Così ho deciso di rappresentare Sala Bolognese, il luogo in cui ho passato la mia infanzia, e Ariha, provincia di Idlib (Siria) in cui ho trascorso le migliori estati da bambina. Entrambi questi luoghi mi hanno aiutata a crescere e a diventare ciò che sono ora”.
- 10.
The original text says: “Sono nata e cresciuta a Bagnolo dove abito tuttora, è un paese piccolino quindi sentiamo un po’ tutti di appartenere alla stessa famiglia. L’area che ho rappresentato raffigura tutti i
punti che appartengono alsento facciano parte del mio luogo d’origine. I luoghi colorati sono i luoghi che ritengo più importanti. Fin da piccola ho sempre vissuto molto il paese, casa mia era un po’ la mia base e da lì tutti i giorni uscivo e incontravo il paese. La Ca ’Rossa è sempre stato un luogo fondamentale, è il ristorante in cui con i miei andavo sempre da piccola, ho moltissimi ricordi lì, tuttibellbellissimi. Il ristorante è tuttora una parte fondamentale della mia vita perché oggi ci lavoro. Da quando sono nata lo staff è rimasto sempre più o meno lo stesso e una persona in particolare è parte ormai della mia famiglia. Un altro luogo importante è il bar (Maura) in cui vado da sempre. La Maura è collegata al ristoranteperchégrazie alla persona di cui parlavo prima. Kevin e la Giuly sono i miei migliori amici da sempre e sento casa loro come se fosse anche un po’ mia. La coop è fondamentale perché è un altro luogo di incontro del paese e il luogo in cui lavora la mia mamma. Ho disegnato casa mia più in dettaglio perché è il centro di tutto, e una casa grande in cui ho giocato da piccola, dove ho la maggior parte dei ricordi, con la mia famiglia e con gli amici.” - 11.
“Nel mio disegno ho rappresentato i luoghi a me più cari e dei quali non potrei fare a meno. – casa mia a Casalecchio di Reno – Casa dei miei nonni all’inizio del portico di San Luca: ho passato gran parte della mia infanzia a casa loro – grazie a ciò ho impresso nella mente il parco di Villa delle Rose, dove andavo sempre col. nonno mentre la nonna cucinava a casa. –San Luca: non potrei fare a meno di questa basilica: la vedo da casa mia, da casa dei nonni, dall’autostrada quando torno a Bologna. Non vedere San Luca sarebbe co me non vedere casa mia.”
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Pozzato, M.P. (2019). Mapping Places of Origin. In: Capone, A., Carapezza, M., Lo Piparo, F. (eds) Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy: Part 2 Theories and Applications. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00973-1_27
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