Research Project
Bruno
Munari
Picturebooks, book objects
and material
intelligence of reading.
A field of inquiry
Reading through objects, images and actions.
Bruno Munari was one of 20th-century Italy’s most eclectic figures. Over the course of his lengthy career as an artist and designer, Munari explored the field of materiality with highly intriguing results. His picturebooks set a precedent in the field of children’s literature, and they are much loved even today. Children are fascinated by the opportunity to organize the experience of reading more freely thanks to ingenious graphical and typographical mechanisms that fully exploit the editorial potential of materials.
Research perspectives
What Munari’s books make possible
LETIN research approaches Munari’s work as an encounter among visual form, material practice and children’s active meaning making.
The book as object
Cut outs, textures, folds, colour and changing formats invite readers to discover the book with their hands as well as their eyes.
Visual worlds in motion
Graphic design, photography, architecture and spatial imagination make each page a site for attention, surprise and interpretation.
Play as a mode of reading
Munari’s work opens room for experimentation, creative response and independent engagement from the earliest years of reading.
Selected bibliography
Publications
Selected publications by Marnie Campagnaro trace Munari’s significance for children’s literature, visual culture, materiality and education.
Campagnaro, M. L'incontro tra pedagogia, immaginari educativi e media nel secondo Novecento: Manzi e Munari, visionari dell'educazione televisiva. In “Il coraggio di pensare a voce alta”. Educazione, linguistica, letteratura per l’infanzia. L’eredità di Alberto Manzi a 100 anni dalla nascita. ISBN 9788835174226.
Campagnaro, M. “A successful photograph is worth as much as a story”: Photography’s influence on Bruno Munari’s books. In E. Druker and B. Kümmerling Meibauer (Eds.), Photography in Children’s Literature (pp. 144 to 167). John Benjamins.
Campagnaro, M. Architecture and Interior Design in Italian Picturebooks: A case study of Bruno Munari. In T. Schmiedeknecht, J. Rudd and E. Hayward (Eds.), Building Children’s Worlds: The Representation of Architecture and Modernity in Picturebooks (pp. 125 to 142). Routledge.
Campagnaro, M. Aerei, aviatori e voli in Bruno Munari. Fra infanzia, arte ed editoria. In Il volo educante. Narrazioni alate per l’infanzia. ISBN 8888180532.
Campagnaro, M. “Libri per liberare i bambini dalla banalità. Ullallà”. Riflessioni intorno alla collana “Tantibambini” (1972 to 1978). In T. Pironi (a cura di), Autorità in crisi. Scuola, famiglia, società prima e dopo il ’68 (pp. 227 to 234). Aracne. ISBN 9788825532555.
Campagnaro, M. The materiality of silence. The curious cases of Munari, Charlip and their picturebooks with no pictures. FronteiraZ, 24, 4 to 23.
Campagnaro, M. Libri per l’infanzia, materialità ed educazione. La lezione di Bruno Munari. In M. T. Triusciuzzi (a cura di), Sentieri tra i Classici. Vecchie e nuove proposte della Letteratura per l’infanzia e per ragazzi (pp. 229 to 243). Pensa Multimedia. ISBN 9788867606726.
Campagnaro, M. Materiality in Bruno Munari’s Book Objects: The Case of Nella notte buia and I Prelibri. Libri & Liberi, 8(2), 359 to 379. DOI 10.21066/carcl.libri.8.2.7.
Campagnaro, M. Do touch! How Bruno Munari’s picturebooks work. Rivista di Storia dell’Educazione, 6(1), 81 to 96.
Campagnaro, M. Touch and Feel: The Body, Senses, Books and Narration in Childhood. In A. Nante and M. Campagnaro (Eds.), The Body. Ninth International Exhibition of Illustration (pp. 73 to 92). Museo Diocesano di Padova and Medigraf Edizioni. ISBN 9788888484358.
Campagnaro, M. L’utile e il dilettevole della Letteratura per l'infanzia 0 to 3 anni. Riflessioni intorno alla literary literacy e alla reader response theory. Nuova Secondaria, 34(7), 86 to 104. ISSN 18284582.
Campagnaro, M. Eredità del Novecento. Il lascito munariano alla letteratura per l’infanzia. Italica Wratislaviensia, 8(2), 69 to 85.
Campagnaro, M. The Function of Play in Bruno Munari’s Children’s Books. A Historical Overview. Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica, 11(3), 93 to 105.
Resources