Protagoniste “ai margini”: voci femminili nell’editoria per ragazzi del secondo dopoguerra

Translated title of the contribution: [Autom. eng. transl.] Protagonists "on the margins": female voices in children's publishing after the Second World War

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

[Autom. eng. transl.] In the post-World War II years, the Italian publishing chain and book circulation qualified as places of choice for the affirmation of the female role in the workplace (Di Nicola, 2021). Italian intellectuals were united by the desire to build a new cultural fabric that was civilly engaged and based on democratic values, also involving and redefining what concerned the literary field. Within this framework, among the profiles of men of letters who moved in this direction, there was the work of various authors, intellectuals and book professionals who were in turn engaged in the search for new lines in promoting the critical-literary debate and the spread of an adult consciousness around literary knowledge. In the last decade, studies on the role of women in twentieth-century Italian publishing have grown (Di Nicola, 2012; Cesana & Piazzoni, 2022): what concerns their work in the field of children's literature, however, remains marginal, except for a few sporadic cases. The presence of women in the field of children's publishing in the 1950s and 1960s proved to be a particularly fruitful area of ​​investigation despite still remaining little explored, despite the professional figures involved being different and invested with various roles: authors, translators, critics, consultants , scholars, librarians. What they had in common was the attempt to promote and spread children's literature, ensuring that even the youngest citizen could freely and democratically access culture. Figures such as Maria Bartolozzi Guaspari, Carla Poesio, Laura Draghi and Laura Colonnetti have contributed decisively to the evolution of Italian children's literature (Pasino, 1982; Lepri, 2021): tireless workers, genius loci of the institutions to which they belonged, however, they remained in the background, they were silent presences within the cultural mechanisms of the time and to which the history of publishing and children's literature often reserved a superficial glance. The proposed contribution intends to bring to light some of these profiles, recomposing part of that "exclusive" circle, not because it is inaccessible or opposed to the male figures active in the field, but because it is guided by a unity of intent and spirit that qualified it as a privileged space for personal and professional affirmation and reflection on children's books. A scrupulous archive work intends to give voice back to these hidden protagonists, bringing to light fragments of lives spent in favor of the promotion of childhood readers, shedding light on the evolutionary stages of children's literature in our country, but above all reevaluating the done by many women after the Second World War.
Translated title of the contribution[Autom. eng. transl.] Protagonists "on the margins": female voices in children's publishing after the Second World War
Original languageItalian
Title of host publicationSistemi educativi, Orientamento, Lavoro
EditorsM Fabbri, P Malavasi, A Rosa, I Vannini
Pages181-183
Number of pages3
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Keywords

  • Letteratura per l'infanzia
  • Editoria per ragazzi
  • Lavoro femminile
  • Secondo dopoguerra
  • Italia
  • Twentieth century
  • Children's literature
  • Children's publishing
  • Women's work
  • Post-war period
  • Italy
  • Novecento

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