Poland and the West. THE DIARY by Witold Gombrowicz

For generations the basic problem of the Polish culture has been the issue concerning the answer to the question about the relation: Poland and the West. The two opposing standpoints have been established. According to the first one, Poland perceived as the gentry culture, compared to the modern West differs in a positive way. According to the second one – just the opposite – in a negative way. W. Gombrowicz in the Diary presented the third point of view. According to him the civilizational backwardness of Poland as compared with the modern Europe which has lost its “humanity” poses a chance. One should make the most of this opportunity.

Children’s Books in Italy Today

The revolution started by Gianni Rodari (1920–1980) led Italian children’s literature to new significant aims: outstanding picture books, a great starting point for more challenging readings, refined writers, and educational and formative series.

A Twentieth-Century Legacy: Bruno Munari’s Gift to Children’s Literature

Bruno Munari left an important legacy to both Italian and international children’s literatures. The hallmarks of this legacy are traditionally considered to be his picture books and their unique visual narratives, illustrations, and tactile surfaces. This essay, however, takes a different approach to interpreting his work. It uses a selection of Munari’s picture books to demonstrate how the extent of his legacy is far more wide-reaching, depicting it as a crossroads that links various features of his long career as an artist and designer. These features include the extraordinary nature of everyday life, faith in the visual, and the challenges laid down by limits, all of which are also fundamental to contemporary children’s literature.

The Writers of ‘Fionda’: Considerations on Publishing Children’s Literature in Croatia

A small community of Italians lives in Croatia, mainly in the area of Istria and in the city of Rijeka, in a multi-ethnic and multicultural environment of history and tradition. The national Italian community in Croatia has an autochthonous presence and tries to preserve its own national and cultural identity. This is done especially through intense and polyhedral artistic activity, ranging from literature to theatre and music, from painting to sculpture, and from photography to design. In 1952, in order to keep up with the cultural development of this community, the publishing house EDIT (EDizioni ITaliane) was founded. In Croatia and abroad, it publishes and promotes books dedicated to Italian authors from Istria and Rijeka, with a series focused on memoirs; modern and contemporary fiction; poetry; and literature for children and youth. Thus, it supports the literary creativity of the writers living in this area. In order to address childhood, EDIT started a junior series called “La Fionda” in 2005, with the mere intention of pointing out the ludic dimension of books and of rousing the imagination of young readers. This article examines the connection of this series to literature for young readers through the analysis of the works of the authors promoted by “La Fionda,” positioning these authors in the socio-historical environment in which they were working. The series expressly attempted to conduct a linguistic investigation linked to artistic and literary reflections within these publications.

Heteronormativity refers to a rigorous social gender order in which the only assumed and accepted gender division is between male and female. Non-heteronormativity implies a loosening of the social gender dichotomy. Both the concepts of heteronormativity and non-heteronormativity in relation to children are rarely used, probably because of prevailing notions of an essentially asexual and unproblematically heteronormative, ‘natural’ process of gender identity acquisition in childhood. In this paper, I address the issue of gender and sexuality in childhood in academic discourses and analyse the construction of non-heteronormativity in selected children’s books. Impulses for the research are provided by critical readings of classical psychological and sociological developmental theories, as well as theories and research on the construction of gender identities in children rooted in the paradigm of social constructivism. The presentation of books created with children in mind, in which the authors point to a way of “taming” non-heteronormativity in the children’s world, may strengthen inclusive tendencies in educational activities and change the existing social gender order.

The text is a review of a collective work devoted, as the title indicates, to the extermination and suffering of Polish children during World War II. The content of the chapters focuses on the fate of Polish children in the General Government and East Prussia of the Third Reich as well as in the territory of Germany after 1945. The individual chapters contain documented crimes against Polish children not only in concentration camps but also in places of residence (Łódź, Zamojszczyzna, CONFIDENTIAL: FOR PEER REVIEW ONLY Białystok, and others). The book includes 12 chapters presenting the effects of the policy of the occupant towards the youngest generation in the period indicated by the caesura, and 2 chapters devoted to the fate of Polish children, who the end of the war found in Germany. The publication of this monograph in English enables the dissemination of knowledge about the fate of Polish children during World War II among a wide range of English-speaking readers. It also fosters reflection on the long-term consequences of wars and the paradox of the 20th century as the “Centenary of the Child” that was announced by Ellen Key

About an “Ecological” Rodari

Nelle sue opere Gianni Rodari ha avuto sempre uno sguardo attento all’ambiente e alle parole che lo caratterizzano e in anni in cui ancora dominava una visione sempre bella e positiva della natura ha saputo creare testi capaci di divertire ma anche far riflettere il lettore. Scopo di questo lavoro è dimostrare quanto lo scrittore abbia anticipato temi che oggi appartengono all’emergenza ambientale. Rodari dedica all’ambiente e alla natura poesie, favole e articoli; a livello di metodo la ricerca parte dalla schedatura completa di tutti i testi rodariani presenti su volumi e riviste e si sviluppa sia attraverso la valutazione dei temi più ricorrenti (la scarsa attenzione degli adulti alle esigenze dei bambini, la speculazione edilizia, le stagioni che cambiano, gli animali che non riescono più ad orientarsi nelle città soffocate dall’inquinamento), sia attraverso la valutazione dello stile di Rodari, mai didascalico e sempre teso alla leggerezza del sorriso. I risultati confermano che lo scrittore attraverso la dimensione fantastica riesce a far emergere l’importanza del rispetto dell’ambiente e il ruolo che l’infanzia può avere nello sviluppo di idee positive verso l’ambiente. Le conclusioni ribadiscono l’attualità dei testi di Rodari in ambito ecologico e la loro validità in campo educativo.

What childhood is? Pedagogical analysis about childhood studies

Interest in children and childhood has changed through the years. The changes were involved in theoretical ways of defining children and youth. Nowadays, these categories are intangible. It is evident that through ages, adults have changed how they treat children, think about childhood, and plan and research children and youth. The change from traditional to modern categories must be the clue to understanding childhood studies. The main reason for writing this paper was to discuss childhood research and studies. At the beginning are presented the historical contexts of the childhood research paradigm. In addition, basic ideas are shown about the modern formation of childhood studies. Moreover, the clue of this paper below is to show a paradigm change: a transition from traditional childhood to a modern one called childhood. The article is based on pedagogy and social studies literature. Also, it is a theoretical discussion about child and childhood studies.

Contemporary reality evidently points to the fact that childhood has been dominated by the media and multimedia. Nowadays, children live in a global culture created by the development of new information technologies, electronic media and the Internet. Their childhood is characterised by individual behavioural patterns at home; it is more ‘private’ as spent by electronic devices where dominant relations are indirect and communication with others is maintained by means of a computer keyboard. The cyberculture, i.e. television, advertisements and the Internet can generate long-lasting state of fear, hyper-agitation, fear of being oppresed by others, night fears and desensitisation in the youngest generation. However, it is sufficient to implement the basic educational rules, such as spending time with children, positive parental presence in the lives of children and showing some honest interest in their problems and interests and talking them through.