Epilogue

Abstract

The preceding chapters have traversed the geography, chronology, sources, and nature of child anxiety in turn of the century Italy. By way of conclusion, we can return to that aspect of popular culture with which we began, namely children’s books. In some ways, the reflections they offer on contemporary children and marginalization, and on the dichotomy dangerous child/child in danger, may represent a more profound index of society’s attitudes and concerns than the more straightforward ones like parliamentary debate, legislative proposals, or muckraking journalism. While the range of Italian works written for chil­dren at the time provides numerous insights into contemporary child anxiety, a fuller review of that literature is beyond the scope of the present work, and indeed merits a treatment of its own. Instead, for our purposes we shall return once again to The Adventures of Pinocchio and then (pre­dictably) draw some comparisons with the other children’s classic of the period, Edmondo De Amicis’ Cuore (The Heart of a Boy), which enjoyed a contemporary success (if not a posterity) as great as Collodi’s master­piece. That success of course distinguishes these works as striking a par­ticular chord among the public for which they were written. Like all great children’s literature, they “sensed the aspirations and prejudices, fears and hunger of [their] audience” (Warner 1994, 409), both child and adult.