Una sensibilità umana nel giocattolo animale: Riflessioni tra postumanismo, resilienza e children’s literature

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/18686

Keywords:

Children’s literature; toys; posthumanism; resilience; animal studies

Abstract

Toys with non-anthropomorphized features in literature, especially when addressed to a children’s readership, prove to be a useful tool in reflecting on the distinction between the ‘human’ and the ‘non-human’. Indeed, the artificial body of the toy and its animal characterization embody in a clear fashion the concept of otherness compared to the stereotypical idea of humanity. Inspired by these stories, children might learn essential lessons, such as the capacity for empathy and resilience to those small or big traumas that anyone is called to meet during his/her lifetime. The critical introduction to these reflections is completed by the literary analysis about the characterization of toys in some children’s books: the rabbit-toy in The Velveteen Rabbit (1922) di Margery Williams, the mice-toys in The Mouse and His Child (1967) di Russell Hoban, and the bear-toy in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) di A. A. Milne.

 

 

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Author Biography

Beatrice Moja, Università degli Studi di Milano

Beatrice Moja ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca nel 2019 presso l’Università degli Studi di Milano. La sua tesi esplorava il ruolo dei giocattoli come oggetti di conforto e modelli di comportamento nella letteratura per l’infanzia. Tra le sue pubblicazioni ricordiamo “Barbie Unbound: The Satirical Representation of the Barbie Doll as an Exemplification of Realism and the Crossover Attitude in Young Adult Literature” (2021), “I bambini e la memoria culturale: infanzia, giocattoli e musei” (2020), and “Charles Dickens and the Child Narrator: Literary and Sociolinguistic Reflections on A Holiday Romance (1868)” (2018).

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Published

2022-09-30

How to Cite

Moja, Beatrice. 2022. “Una Sensibilità Umana Nel Giocattolo Animale: Riflessioni Tra Postumanismo, Resilienza E children’s Literature”. Altre Modernità, September, 62-77. https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/18686.

Issue

2022: NUMERO SPECIALE: Vulnerabilità e resilienza: Voci e pratiche dai margini

Section

Saggi Ensayos Essais Essays

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