James Dean, Paul Simon, and Madonna. Rebels with Social Causes

Every artist is the bearer of his own, innate, and original expressive logic (Weber, 2006). An archaic thought that, in taking shape and extrinsicity, brings out the innermost states of mind of those who choose to measure themselves with art, not only performance art. What emerges from such an approach is the possibility, in a process of self-identification, to represent a symbol for entire generations and segments of the population within a society. Artists can embody the “sense of community”, or what Sarason (1974) defined as the perception of similarity with others, the increased interdependence with others and the willingness to maintain this interdependence by offering or doing for others what is expected of them. The feeling, then, of being part of a fully reliable and stable social structure. This paper, by analyzing from a socio-psycho-pedagogical point of view the figures of three different global artists – James Dean, Paul Simon, and Madonna –, aims to emphasize how the rebellion and emotional impulse typical of the creative mind can also be associated with specific social causes, representing intergenerational role-models and figures with high pedagogical-emancipatory power.