Recensioni

(a cura di)Dorena CaroliIlaria FilograssoAndrea Porcarell

Writing to free childhood. The contribution of Leila Berg

This essay is part of a research work aiming to rediscover and enhance the contribution of Leila Berg, English author and editor who died at the age of 94 in 2012: a fully-fledged player in the profound transformation of children’s literature in Europe during the Sixties and Seventies, she was renowned for her works on the close ties between pedagogical thought and writing, taking part in the debate on the limits of traditional education and literary choices. The innovative depth of Leila Berg’s most famous literary project, the Nippers series for early readers, which began in 1967, may be fully understood from the essays the writer dedicated to the problems of education and language learning: in these, children’s literature, with its reworked topics and stylistic choices, is given a central role for the empowerment of working class children, often deprived of motivating reading experiences both in the family and school contexts. Il saggio si inscrive in un lavoro di ricerca che intende riscoprire e valorizzare il contributo di Leila Berg, scrittrice ed editor anglosassone scomparsa a 94 anni nel 2012: pienamente inserita nel contesto di profonda trasformazione della letturatura per l’infanzia in Europa negli anni Sessanta e Settanta, il suo impegno si caratterizza per la stretta relazione tra riflessione pedagogica e scrittura, adesione al dibattito sui limiti dell’educazione tradizionale e scelte letterarie. La portata innovativa del progetto editoriale più noto di Leila Berg, la serie dei Nippers per primi lettori, avviato nel 1967, può essere pienamente compresa attraverso i saggi che la scrittrice dedica ai problemi dell’educazione e dell’apprendimento linguistico: in essi è assegnato alla letteratura per l’infanzia, ripensata nei temi e nelle scelte stilistiche, un ruolo centrale per l’empowerment dei bambini della working class, spesso deprivati di esperienze di lettura motivanti sia nel contesto familiare che in quello scolastico.

Children, Soldiers and Heroes: The Great War in Past and Present Italian Children\u2019s Literature

Along with the Great War came new forms of propaganda, in Italian children’s literature too. In fact, children’s literature was adopted as a powerful communication tool, conveying emotionally pervasive and deceitful messages to children and adults alike. Today’s Italian literature for children no longer suffers from such a strong influence of wartime censorship and political propaganda. It is much more a narrative space for recollection and reflection. But how has it really changed? What are the modern tendencies of publications for children on the topic of the First World War in Italy? Do the narrative models differ very greatly from those of the past? After sketching the historical, cultural and political picture of Italy at the time of World War I, this essay analyses and compares a significant corpus of past and present Italian children’s literature. The findings demonstrate that with the arrival of new directions in Italian historiographical research, with a new generation of Italian children’s authors, and with the centenary of the ending of the First World War Italian children’s literature has somewhat belatedly painted a more balanced picture of the historical, cultural and political events of those times.S Prvim svjetskim ratom pojavljuju se novi oblici propagande i u talijanskoj dječjoj književnosti. Zapravo, dječja je književnost prihvaćena kao snažno priopćajno oruđe kojim se prenose emocionalno prodorne i prijevarne poruke podjednako i djeci i odraslima. Suvremena talijanska dječja književnost više nije podložna tako snažnomu utjecaju ratne cenzure i političke propagande, nego je više narativni prostor za prisjećanje i promišljanje. No kako se doista promijenila? Koje su suvremene tendencije književnosti za djecu s temom Prvoga svjetskoga rata u Italiji? Razlikuju li se narativni modeli bitno od onih iz prošlosti? Nakon kratkoga prikaza povijesne, kulturne i političke slike Italije u vrijeme Prvoga svjetskoga rata, u ovome se radu analizira i uspoređuje značajan korpus nekadašnje i suvremene talijanske dječje književnosti. Rezultati pokazuju da su novi smjerovi talijanskih historiografskih istraživanja, nove generacije talijanskih dječjih pisaca i stogodišnjica završetka Prvoga svjetskoga rata, premda i sa zakašnjenjem, pridonijeli nastanku uravnoteženije slike povijesnih, kulturnih i političkih događaja toga vremena.Der Erste Weltkrieg führt in der italienischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur zum Erscheinen neuer Formen von Propaganda. Vielmehr noch, Kinder- und Jugendliteratur wird als ein mächtiges Werkzeug aufgefasst, das zur Mitteilung emotional durchdringender und täuschender Botschaften an Kinder und Erwachsene gleichermaßen eingesetzt wird. Die gegenwärtige italienische Kinder- und Jugendliteratur unterliegt nicht länger diesem starken Einfluss der Zensur und politischen Propaganda der Kriegszeit, sondern stellt einen narrativen Raum für Erinnerungen und Nachsinnen dar. Doch wie hat sie sich wirklich verändert? Welche gegenwärtigen Tendenzen weist die Kinder- und Jugendliteratur zum Thema Erster Weltkrieg in Italien auf? Unterscheiden sich die Erzählmodelle wesentlich von denen in der Vergangenheit? Nach einem kurzen Überblick der geschichtlichen, kulturellen und politischen Lage Italiens zur Zeit des Ersten Weltkriegs wird in dieser Arbeit ein bedeutender Korpus der einstigen und gegenwärtigen italienischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur analysiert und miteinander verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass neueingeschlagene Richtungen italienischer Historiographie, neue Generationen italienischer Autoren der KJL und die hundert Jahre die zwischen dem Ersten Weltkrieg und heute liegen, wenn auch mit einiger Verspätung so dennoch zur Entstehung einer balancierten Darstellung der geschichtlichen, kulturellen und politischen Geschehnisse jener Zeit beigetragen haben