“Narrating” homes and objects: images of domestic life in Italian picturebooks since the mid-20th century

Abstract

The home is an emblematic topos in children’s literature. The home is intended primarily as a physical place where the family comes together, and where the protagonists’ primary needs are generally met. The home is also a place of memories and knowledge acquisition. It is capable of revealing the attitudes of the characters, their lifestyles, translating them into words and images. The home can reveal the quality of human relations within its walls and outside the family circle. The aim of this contribution is to analyze the home as a space of personal characterization and psychological, social and historical-cultural evolution. After providing a historical picture of Italian domestic life as of the years after World War II, the article outlines some of the ways in which the home, its interiors and the image of childhood have changed in Italian picturebooks over the second half of the 20th century.