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Remembering School Through Movies: The Films of the Book Cuore (1886) in Republican Italy

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School Memories

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Abstract

Cuore (Heart) (1886) is the imaginary diary of Enrico, a pupil in the 3rd form of an elementary school in Turin, in 1881–82. Written by E.De Amicis, brilliant journalist and writer, patriot and socialist, Cuore is one of the most popular Italian books for children. De Amicis’ aim was to teach moral and civic secular values, such as patriotic feeling, love and respect for family, solidarity among social classes and above regional differences, obedience to authority and the values of work, of duty, of sacrifice. This essay focuses on the four Italian movies (1948, 1973)/TV serials (1984, 2001) on Cuore, hence on how a masterpiece of children’s literature that has long embodied a model of school has been newly presented on the screen, with what changes and with what success with audiences. Two levels are considered: the correlation between the movies and the book and between both the movies and the book and society. This analysis will at last return the image of an imaginary school, partially corresponding to the one of Cuore, retaining and altering it in order to propose a model of school, which the audience could recognize both as the traditional good one and as one valid for the present.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On the relationship between De Amicis and the newly born cinema Boschi (2012) , that, however, belittles Coletti’s film in an unjustified way.

  2. 2.

    I am thankful to Mr. Scavolini, for his courtesy in sending me a DVD copy of his Cuore.

  3. 3.

    The date is not made explicit, but can be inferred by the age of the protagonists. The action takes places between 1915 and 1917. Franti says he spent 2 years in jail and 6 in a young offenders centre, which he entered aged 11 (5 episode, min. 9, 20–34).

  4. 4.

    In 2011 Koch’s experience was brought to the screen with the movie Lessons of a Dream.

  5. 5.

    Named Eugenia Barruero, she died in 1957 and was remembered in the national newspaper Domenica del Corriere, including on the front cover (Novelli 2011).

  6. 6.

    Three episodes are posted on Youtube (2012). In three years the first had c. 40,000 views and the last two c.10.000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy

    Simonetta Polenghi

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  1. Simonetta Polenghi
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Correspondence to Simonetta Polenghi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Seville , Seville, Spain

    Cristina Yanes-Cabrera

  2. University of Macerata , Macerata, Italy

    Juri Meda

  3. University of Murcia , Murcia, Spain

    Antonio Viñao

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Polenghi, S. (2017). Remembering School Through Movies: The Films of the Book Cuore (1886) in Republican Italy. In: Yanes-Cabrera, C., Meda, J., Viñao, A. (eds) School Memories. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44063-7_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44063-7_15

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