Home, lived-in spaces and childhood in European picturebooks from 1945 to the present day

Abstract

The concepts of home and espace vécu play a large role in children’s literature. The home is not just an objective and architectural space, but also an intimate space with sensory, symbolic, cultural, social and political dimensions. The concept of espace vécu refers to a relationship between what "exists" and what "is perceived". Children build their own identity in the context of their families, developing relationships not only with people, but also with places and things. The aim of this special issue is to identify and analyse the evolution of the representation of these spaces in European picturebooks published in the period 1945-2010. An historical and comparative international survey on picturebooks has been carried out by researchers of children's literature, comparative education and geography from various European countries (Italy – coordinator, Croatia, France, Germany, Norway, Portugal), emphasising as the interdisciplinary study of domestic spaces represented in picturebooks is a particularly promising investigative field for reading, within an original perspective framework, social and cultural changes also occurring in the history of childhood.