The representation of the spaces of education in “Il giornalino della domenica” in the years of the first editorial direction of Luigi Bertelli (Vamba): 1906-1911.
S. BarsottiFirst
2019-01-01
Abstract
Phenomena of evident chance are notices in Italian periodical for children during the first fifteen years of the twenty century; children and young people through their magazines begin to exercise more and more their freedom of choice and to activate personal ways of reading by building their own ideal text that could continuously nourish along new and original itineraries. The relationship between young readers and magazines becomes increasingly close and in the “child writings” (the reader’s column, letters, etc.) places such as the home, the games room, the school, the home theater, are presented as spaces of education. When in 1906 “Il giornalino della domenica” began its publications, it represented a revolutionary novelty in the panorama of children’s press, still profoundly nineteenth-century: often boring pages enlivened only sporadically by some image. The periodical founded by Luigi Bertelli (better known under the pseudonym of Vamba), however, in years when it was damaging to write for children, showed the collaboration of capable and sensitive writers for children and, although occasionally, of renowned authors. Although it promises the training of young readers, the periodical always kept in mind their childlike nature and their needs, by acquiring a socializing and modern “rebellious” playful flair. The aim was not to teach reading or writing, but to allow children to recognize their fantasies and desires through stories, poems, and essays. For this report, we will consider only the years of the first editorial direction of Luigi Bertelli: that is from 1906 to 1911. The educational project that the Florentine writer intends to realize through the texts and illustrations published in the magazine, consciously distances itself from the normative tensions of the nineteenth century to affirm an idea of a new and different kind of childhood, to whom is recognized the ability to possess and exercise a taste and to prefer what is fun from what bores. Thus the columns, in which the voice of young readers is more evident, will be particularly interesting from our point of view. While it is common to see the children of the past through the adult descriptive filter, it is more difficult to hear their direct voice. Therefore, the letters and other contributions of young readers of children's magazines become an important instrument to analyze, from a historical-educational and historical-literary point of view, the role of real and ideal readers in the changing and rich debate that the life of the periodicals activates within and beyond their pages. In this sense, we will try to bring out, in particular from the columns of the "Giornalino", the representation of the spaces of education. Real spaces described and spaces imagined as they come to light from the representations of the authors of the texts but also and above all from the words of the readers with the aim of analyzing their role in the history of education.Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.