Narrazioni e immaginario di genere. Modelli alternativi maschili e femminili nell'albo illustrato contemporaneo

This Ph.D. research aims to investigate non-conventional female and male models offered by contemporary children's literature, and more specifically in those picturebooks published in Italy in the last twenty years. To do so, the study analyses a sample, selected according to specific criteria, composed of one hundred and five literary works. The PhD project is therefore rooted in two broad areas of research, which are intertwined here: Gender Studies and Narrative Pedagogy. The study opens with two introductory chapters which are useful in the construction of methodological and epistemological foundations related to Children's Literature and Gender Pedagogy: this preliminary literary review introduces a subsequent chapter in which a reflection is proposed on the stereotypes that, historically, have characterized female and male representations of adult and young characters who have populated children's literature. Subsequently, the study explores the selected sample through an investigation grid, used as a tool for a semi-structured research aimed at understanding the typification of new characters in a gender perspective, so as to examine how the most modern children's literature deconstructs (or in some cases reinforces) stereotypes on a sexual basis. The grid dwells both on literary and textual aspects and on the iconographic apparatus that necessarily accompanies the written word in art forms such as the picture book. The observations that emerged in the compilation of the thematic grid lead to the identification of some recurrent and interesting themes with regard to gender, such as the relationships between parents and children, the characterization of emotions, the professional aspirations of the characters, the colours and their gender characterization, the graphic and textual representation of the scenarios in which characters move, and so on. Starting from the unconventional literary characters, it is possible to build a new collective imaginary, egalitarian and sensitive to differences, and for this reason it is crucial to outline a profound knowledge of new literary portraits, exploring lights and shadows that characterize them from a gender-based perspective.