Drowned or saved? Research perspectives on children’s literature in Italy

Current literary criticism in Italy has recognised that it is still difficult to enclose children’s literature within a category able to encompass its multifaceted characteristics (Beseghi, 2002; Cantatore,2019). Therefore, any critical approach to its epistemological status needs to focus on multiple points of view. On the one hand, a diachronic method is adopted when examining literary texts and authorship. On the other hand, it is essential to examine how young people respond to literary works, and what kind of problems are involved in teaching reading (Lollo, 2003). This paper aims to clarify how the epistemological study of children’s literature has been structured in Italy in recent decades and how an epistemological statute is capable of maintaining a balance between literary and educational considerations, today and in the past. Additionally, it aims to help consolidate the disciplinary identity of children’s literature as distinct from other literary disciplines, but without losing sight of its unique features and flavour (Fava, 2019). The fact that children’s literature has no real centre of gravity may be interpreted as a flaw in the system, an undefined component of literary and historical knowledge causing its specific educational role for children to be overlooked. This research aims to investigate the benefits of slow research that, in the long run, will enable the discipline to save itself instead of being drowned by other areas of knowledge