ELEMENTI DI UN DIBATTITO

• Published in: Quaderni storici 1972-05, Vol.7 (20 (2)), p.619-630
• Main Authors: Rosa, Alberto Asor, De Mauro, Tullio, della Loggia, Ernesto Galli, Woolf, Stuart J., Grendi, Edoardo, Marenco, Franco
• Format: Article
• Language: Italian
• Subjects: CLASSI SOCIALI E IDEOLOGIE
• ISSN: 0301-6307

T. de Mauro, A. Asor Rosa, A. Di Majo, G. Penati, S.J. Woolf, E. Grendi, P. Marenco discuss the role of intellectuals, the birth of mass culture, the hypothesis of a «counterculture» opposed to the ruling culture. In the course of the debate Giuncarlo Penati claims that intellectuals, especially in their capacity as philosophers, hold themselves responsible for the crisis of culture and do not consider themselves mere spectators. The crisis is felt to be positive, or at least potentially so, in that it is a questioning and search for the meaning, beyond the level of mere historical actuality, of human reality both in our own and in all times. Franco Marenco then discusses the problem of working-class culture breaking through bourgeois hegemony. He asserts that one of the main features is the refusal of the role of «mediation» between conflicting class interests and makes a distinction between undercurrents of working-class consciousness and the use of traditional bourgeois channels. An «alternative culture», he affirms, should add a dynamic element to Asor Rosa's model which, as it stands, seems too restrictive.