How Popular Music Enters University Classrooms in the Humanities? The Case of the Canzone d’Autore in Italy Study Proposal between Umberto Saba and Fabrizio De André

In the last decade, university courses dedicated to famous pop singers have become an increasingly large phenomenon in the academic field of Humanities. Some of the most prestigious Anglo-Saxon universities have offered or are about to offer courses about Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, along with the recent case of Harvard’s course entitled “English 183ts. Tylor Swift and Her World”. This can give us an idea of the impact that pop music is making in the academic field. However, such attention to contemporary music production does not seem to be devoted to the Italian side of humanistic criticism. Reasons could be several but, not for this, musical culture is entirely cut off from university courses in our country: the Italian phenomenon of canzone d’autore has received a special attention from scholars of different fields. The article aims to propose a case study based on Umberto Saba’s poem “Città Vecchia” and on its influence on the song of the same name by singer Fabrizio De André.