Italian Children’s Literature and National Identity

Childhood, Melancholy, Modernity

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, European, Italian, Children&, Ancient & Classical
Cover of the book Italian Children’s Literature and National Identity by Maria Truglio, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Maria Truglio ISBN: 9781351987554
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: July 20, 2017
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Maria Truglio
ISBN: 9781351987554
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: July 20, 2017
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

This book bridges the fields of Children’s Literature and Italian Studies by examining how turn-of-the-century children’s books forged a unified national identity for the new Italian State. Through contextualized close readings of a wide range of texts, Truglio shows how the 19th-century concept of recapitulation, which held that ontogeny (the individual’s development) repeats phylogeny (the evolution of the species), underlies the strategies of this corpus. Italian fairy tales, novels, poems, and short stories imply that the personal development of the child corresponds to and hence naturalizes the modernizing development of the nation. In the context of Italy’s uneven and ambivalent modernization, these narrative trajectories are enabled by a developmental melancholia. Using a psychoanalytic lens, and in dialogue with recent Anglophone Children’s Literature criticism, this study proposes that national identity was constructed via a process of renouncing and incorporating paternal and maternal figures, rendered as compulsory steps into maturity and modernity. With chapters on the heroic figure of Garibaldi, the Orientalized depiction of the South, and the role of girls in formation narratives, this book discloses how melancholic itineraries produced gendered national subjects. This study engages both well-known Italian texts, such as Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio and De Amicis’ Heart, and books that have fallen into obscurity by authors such as Baccini, Treves, Gianelli, and Nuccio. Its approach and corpus shed light on questions being examined by Italianists, Children’s Literature scholars, and social and cultural historians with an interest in national identity formation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This book bridges the fields of Children’s Literature and Italian Studies by examining how turn-of-the-century children’s books forged a unified national identity for the new Italian State. Through contextualized close readings of a wide range of texts, Truglio shows how the 19th-century concept of recapitulation, which held that ontogeny (the individual’s development) repeats phylogeny (the evolution of the species), underlies the strategies of this corpus. Italian fairy tales, novels, poems, and short stories imply that the personal development of the child corresponds to and hence naturalizes the modernizing development of the nation. In the context of Italy’s uneven and ambivalent modernization, these narrative trajectories are enabled by a developmental melancholia. Using a psychoanalytic lens, and in dialogue with recent Anglophone Children’s Literature criticism, this study proposes that national identity was constructed via a process of renouncing and incorporating paternal and maternal figures, rendered as compulsory steps into maturity and modernity. With chapters on the heroic figure of Garibaldi, the Orientalized depiction of the South, and the role of girls in formation narratives, this book discloses how melancholic itineraries produced gendered national subjects. This study engages both well-known Italian texts, such as Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio and De Amicis’ Heart, and books that have fallen into obscurity by authors such as Baccini, Treves, Gianelli, and Nuccio. Its approach and corpus shed light on questions being examined by Italianists, Children’s Literature scholars, and social and cultural historians with an interest in national identity formation.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book On the Political by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book The Stylus Phantasticus and Free Keyboard Music of the North German Baroque by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book But at the Same Time and on Another Level by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Economic Spaces of Pastoral Production and Commodity Systems by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Introduction to Art Therapy by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Fanon, Education, Action by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Carbon Politics and the Failure of the Kyoto Protocol by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Theology and Psychology by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Song from the Land of Fire by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Analysing the Screenplay by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Social Welfare in Latin America by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Counterterrorism Policies in Central Asia by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Equity and Trusts by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Reframing Health Behavior Change With Behavioral Economics by Maria Truglio
Cover of the book Autobiographical Memory and the Construction of A Narrative Self by Maria Truglio
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy