Page 10 - Quadrivium

QDV 6 (2015) ISSN 1989-8851 Identity, Dialogism and Liminality… Marcello Messina

 I have argued that, by singing in a dialogic form, the tunnaroti construct and negotiate a shared identity.

 Expanding on an initial interpretation proposed by Guggino (2008: 96-97), I have further connected the
comical obscenity of some of the songs, and their irreverent attitude towards the rais, to Bakhtin’s

carnivalesque, and in particular I have claimed that:

o the cialumaturi functions as a decrowning double of the rais;
o the irreverence towards the rais functions as a ritual laughter that, on one hand, questions and, on

the other hand, renovates his authority;
o this same irreverence is not only directed to the rais but, in more general terms, exorcises the

seriousness of the imminent tuna carnage.

 Finally, I have shown how the less strict dialogic form of the song Gnanzù could perhaps signal the
passage to a climate of horizontal cooperation, necessary to coordinate shared efforts in the final phase
of the fishing.

While asserting their own identity through the mattanza, the tunnaroti use the singing as a threshold that allows

them to access the most critical, violent and transcendental phase of the ritual. I would like to conclude by

quoting Maggio, who seems to perceive this liminal function of the singing when, listening to the chant of the
cialumaturi, she observes: “He sang, the melody was a plaint, a rolling wave of lament. The chorus answered ‘Ai-
a-mola, ai-a-mola’. What does it mean? What door does it open?” (Maggio, 2000: 254).

Bibliografia

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ICCAT, 67(1), 380-389.

BAKHTIN, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
BONANZINGA, S. (2013). «La musica di tradizione orale», dentro Ruffino, G. (Ed.), Lingue e culture in Sicilia, Palermo,

Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani, pp. 189-246.
GIARELLI, G. (1998). «L'ultima mattanza?», La Ricerca Folklorika, 38, 131-133.
GUGGINO, E. (2008). «I canti della memoria», dentro Consolo, V. (Ed.), La pesca del tonno in Sicilia, Palermo, Sellerio, pp.

83-99.
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Community», M/C Journal, 17(1). Retrieved from
http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/764
LENTINI, R. (2011). «The Tuna-fishing Structures in Sicily: an Identarian Architectural Heritage», 2nd CITCEM Conference
"The Sea: Heritage, Uses and Representations". Universidade do Porto,
http://www.citcem.org/encontro/pdf/new_02/TEXTO%20-%20Rosario%20Lentini.pdf [consulta: 27 de
noviembre de 2014].
MAGGIO, T. (2000). Mattanza: love and death in the Sea of Sicily, Cambridge, MA, Perseus.
MARINO, E., & MAGGIO, T. (2005). «Beyond Ethnicity: An Interview with Theresa Maggio», Nebula, 2(3), 118-125.
RAVAZZA, N. (2010). Favignana. Tonnara e tonni, Trapani, Anselmo.
SALVATORI, B. (2009). Il Tonno Rosso, una specie in pericolo: violenze, devastazione ecologica e abusi nel Mediterraneo.
Doctoral thesis: Università degli Studi della Tuscia.
TORRENTE, B. (2002). La mattanza: pesca sacra, Trapani, Thalia.

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