An important theme to better understand the moment and the society in which we live, and the job. Telling about the work means explaining it. The point is that to better understand its condition and evolution, the major mass media such as literature, television and fiction should argue and explain it more. We would need a new artistic current inspired by neorealism, that is a perspective and a raw and dramatic narration of the reality that surrounds us in its many facets. Post-war neorealism also served to make society more readable and more transparent and, ultimately, it also witnessed the economic boom.
Something is starting to glimpse: the Amazon job advertisements (2020) and the film Nomadland (Golden Lion 2020) are some examples. Then Covid made us discover the reality of emergency hospitals, protests in the streets of various social categories, but also the vast and unexplored topic of smartworking. The topics work, workers and employers are the central theme: the common thread is our time in which work is missing, or lost, or where it is transformed into new configurations.
In this moment of strong changes the narrative scheme of these narratives must be more pragmatic, “here and now”, in order to become interesting and transformative for our knowledge: the approach should be more informative and more documentary in order to move far away from those popular and shouted models (Big Brother) that tell of another type of reality.
The critical and realistic narrative mode of the single story is an old element that should be recovered to convey a signal of relevance of the theme. The job triangulation, workers and employers, it needs to be described to increase dignity and to reduce distances and conflicts. The representation must show the commitment, the sacrifice, the hope, the revenge of the human and social condition, of good and evil, of being and of becoming.
“I am not a pessimist; noticing evil where it exists, in my opinion, is a form of optimism.” Roberto Rossellini. All the Best!
