Good things happen when you narrow your focus
Welcome to Conference
corso-di-perf-slide6
  /    /  History of Children’s Literature

LETIN UNIPD · Historical and Cultural Studies of Childhood

History of Children’s Literature

These projects explore the history of Italian children’s literature through the lives and works of Gianni Rodari, Italo Calvino and Bruno Munari, and through the historical development of themes such as the representation of the Great War. The research brings literary history into conversation with publishing, education, visual culture and the changing cultural meanings of childhood.

Italian children’s literatureChildren’s booksItalian writersGreat WarItalo CalvinoBruno MunariGianni Rodari

Research lines

Childhood, books and educational memory

Historical enquiry at LETIN UNIPD attends to the ways in which children’s books make educational ideas, social relations and visual forms available to young readers. Its archive spans canonical authors, changing publishing cultures and the literary representation of school and war.

Research project

Classic Children’s Books by the Decades: 1960s & 1970s

This research investigates publishing and educational transformations in children’s literature between 1960 and 1980. It considers the new ideas about educational needs and children’s agency that emerged through these changes.

Reading aloud and shared stories, emergent literacy in relation to poverty and social exclusion, and varied graphic, typographic, tactile and multisensorial forms are examined as resources for children’s linguistic, visual, cognitive and emotional literacy.

Related 2024 publication
Research project

Portraits of Male and Female Headmasters

Individual and Collective Representations in Children’s Literature

School stories are intertwined with the history of children’s literature. In the eighteenth century, these stories mainly focused on male characters and their relationships with peers and teachers. Stories about girls at school were rare.

The project outlines the representational characteristics of male and female school leaders through literary content and iconographic depictions, analysing and comparing Italian and European children’s works from the nineteenth century to the present day.

Related 2024 publication
Poster for the New Insights in the History of Children’s Literature international seminar, University of Padua, December 2019

Research archive

New Insights in the History of Children’s Literature

The field develops through scholarly exchange across literary studies, the history of education, illustration, publishing and children’s reading practices. This archived poster records the international seminar held at the University of Padua in December 2019.

International Seminar · University of Padua and FISPPA · 14 to 16 December 2019

Resources

Selected publications and research links

Publications

  1. Campagnaro, M. (2025). Reframing Biography for Children: Historical Roots, Research Trajectories, and Literary-Visual Strategies. Strenae, 27.
  2. Campagnaro, M. (2025). Histories of Visual Education: The Reception of Marie Neurath’s Books in the Italian Postwar Milieu. In S. Blumesberger, B. Kümmerling-Meibauer & J. Meibauer (Eds.), Marie Neurath and Isotype Picturebooks: Transforming Knowledge for Children. De Gruyter.
  3. Campagnaro, M. (2024). The Long Reach of Creativity: The Lasting Impact of 1970s Italian Children’s Literature. Bookbird.
  4. Campagnaro, M. & Malilang, C. S. (2024). Tracing the Evolution of Contemporary Italian Children’s Literature. Bookbird.
  5. Campagnaro, M. (2024). Portraits of Headmasters and Headmistresses: How is School Authority Depicted in Children’s Literature? In The School and Its Many Pasts. Volume III: Collective Memories of School.
  6. Galletti, A. (2022). Tracce di materia e di luce nella letteratura per l’infanzia. La preziosità dell’Oro tra il qui e l’Altrove. ETS.
  7. Campagnaro, M. (2021). Infanzia, adolescenza e resilienza. Zigzagando fra i generi letterari e sfide educative [Childhood, Adolescence and Resilience: Wandering through Literary Genres and Educational Challenges]. Gli Argonauti. Rivista di Studi storico-educativi e Pedagogici, 1(1), 44 to 54.
  8. Campagnaro, M. (2020). Sul “pensare per coppie”. Origine e valore della “fantastica casalinga” di Rodari. In L. Todaro (Ed.), Gianni Rodari. Incontri e riflessioni a cento anni dalla nascita (pp. 95 to 106). Roma: Anicia. ISBN 978-88-6709-531-5.
  9. Campagnaro, M. (2020). “Pro e contro la fiaba” Fifty Years Later: Is Gianni Rodari’s Apologia Still Relevant Today? Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy Tale Studies, 34(1), 109 to 118.
  10. Campagnaro, M. & Filograsso, I. (2018). Children, Soldiers and Heroes. The Great War in Past and Present Italian Children’s Literature. Libri & Liberi, 7(2), 223 to 246. DOI 10.21066/carcl.libri.7.2.3.
  11. Campagnaro, M. (2017). Il cacciatore di pieghe. Figure e tendenze della letteratura per l’infanzia contemporanea. Lecce: Pensa MultiMedia. ISBN 978-88-6760-513-2.
  12. Campagnaro, M. (2017). A immagine e somiglianza di bambino. Le trasformazioni della letteratura per l’infanzia e della pedagogia della lettura negli anni Sessanta e Settanta. In G. Zago (Ed.), L’educazione extrascolastica nella seconda metà del Novecento. Tra espansione e rinnovamento (1945 to 1975) (pp. 169 to 190). Milano: FrancoAngeli. ISBN 978-88-917-5385-4.
  13. Zago, G. (Ed.) (2017). L’educazione extrascolastica nella seconda metà del Novecento. Tra espansione e rinnovamento (1945 to 1975). Milano: FrancoAngeli. ISBN 978-88-9175-385-4.
  14. Zago, G. (2017). Il contributo di Anna Maria Bernardinis (1932 to 2017) alla pedagogia della letteratura per l’infanzia. History of Education & Children’s Literature, 2, 629 to 638. ISSN 1971-1131.
  15. Zago, G. (2017). Anna Maria Bernardinis. Rassegna di Pedagogia, 3 to 4, 115 to 117. ISSN 033-9571.
  16. Campagnaro, M. (2016). Pinocchio. Marvels & Tales. Journal of Fairy Tale Studies, 30(1), 142 to 144. ISSN 1521-4281.
  17. Campagnaro, M. (Ed.) (2015). La Grande guerra raccontata ai ragazzi. Roma: Donzelli. ISBN 978-88-6843-190-7.
  18. Campagnaro, M. (Ed.) (2014). Le terre della fantasia. Leggere la letteratura per l’infanzia e l’adolescenza. Roma: Donzelli. ISBN 978-88-6843-059-7.
  19. Campagnaro, M. (2013). A Classic Work of Italian Literature: Italo Calvino’s Trilogy for Young Readers. Libri & Liberi, 2(1), 83 to 95.
  20. Campagnaro, M. (2012). Storie di donne scritte da donne. La proposta iconica di Chiara Carrer. In S. Chemotti (Ed.), Le graphie della cicogna. La scrittura delle donne come ri velazione (pp. 393 to 414). Padova: Il Poligrafo. ISBN 978-88-7115-775-7.

Research network

History of education and collective representation

The study of headmasters and headmistresses forms part of the work of the Research Group on History of Education led by Professor Giuseppe Zago at the University of Padua Subunit, within the PRIN 2017 project School Memories between Social Perception and Collective Representation (Italy, 1861 to 2001).