invented exotic plots and in particular the Black Jungle cycle with a Malay hero,
Sandokan, which enjoyed a huge success in spite of which its author, hounded by debts
and predatory publishers, committed suicide. By now every kind of genre had made its
appearance, from sentimental humility (Il racconto del piccolo vetraio [The Story of a
Little Glassmaker] by Olimpia De Gasperi), to folklore, rediscovered now that tales from
the oral and dialect tradition were being collected and transcribed (Costantino Nigra for
Piedmont, Giuseppe Pitré for Sicily).
Professional writers found it easier, however, to invent new characters, closer to the
child’s world. Vamba (Luigi Bertelli, 1860–1920) published the diary of an enfant
terrible, Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca [Gian Burrasca’s Diary] (1912), which he
illustrated himself. Unlike Cuore, Gian Burrasca’s tricks make fun of provincial manners
and deflate the sentimental image of the good child.
Fascism was keen to build up its widespread support (Cannistraro 1975) and actively
promoted children’s literature with that aim in view. As a result Il giornale del balilla (the
Young Fascist’s paper) came into being, as did stories about young people seen in
scenes of communal and paramilitary life and ritual. The country’s literary avant garde
expressed their approval (Marinetti 1939).
The post-war generation promoted children’s literature as the Risorgimento and
Fascism had done. In wondering what kind of books its children should read, it found
itself divided into two camps (as happened within Einaudi, the major publisher of
general literature). On one side were the realists, who set up models to follow such as
working-class hero’s sons, and on the other those more sensitive to the popular and
cultural heritage, who favoured fantasy, dream and narrative. Italo Calvino, in
particular, promoted the publication of collections of tales, and even wrote some
himself, such as Marcovaldo or the Cosmicomiche [Cosmicomics] which have become
children’s classics. Gianni Rodari, clearly Communist in ideology, tried to reconcile the
two opposing positions, writing a Grammatica della fantasia [A Grammar of Imagination]
(1973) on one side, and nursery rhymes, stories and poems containing such theories as
the superiority of manual work, class solidarity and the search for freedom on the other.
Besides, in the 1960s, even Catholics decided to review their attitude to education, as
can be seen in Don Milani’s Lettera ad una professoressa [Letter to a Teacher] (1967),
which attacks the injustices and authoritarianism of middle-class teaching methods. All
these themes, taken up and expanded in 1968, brought about great changes in
children’s literature in the following decades. Feminism, with the work of Elena Gianini
Belotti, Dalla parte delle bambine (which was to give its name to a publishing house),
produced texts that tried to alter gender stereotypes (Belotti 1976).
At the present time, less than 50 per cent of book production is of native extraction
(Li.B.eR 1993). What with the gap between North and South, between A rich literary
tradition and a crisis offset by an unexportable language, between a laissez-faire
attitude in the field of communication and an ideological and moralising discourse in the
field of criticism, Italy still to a large extent imports children’s literature and culture. It is
by no means coincidental that it is in new media like the cinema (from the children of
neo-realism to Luigi Comencini’s entire output) and comic strips (from Jacovitti and
Altan, with Pimpa, to Bonelli’s productions) that the most original ideas for and about
children are being expressed. Other encouraging signs are the important annual
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