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Abstract
While researching the current state of Italian children's literature through a series of interviews with publishers, scholars, critics, and authors in Italy during the summer of 1974, the name Gianni Rodari came up again and again as one of the foremost contemporary writers for children whose works merited the attention of a critical study. Because most of his works have not been translated into English, he is little known in the United States in spite of his tremendous popularity in Europe In 1973 he published Grammatica della fantasia,"an introduction to the art of making up stories," in which, by analyzing various techniques of inventing stories in order to make the process accessible to all, he actually postulates fundamental theory on the structure and function of fantasy. The book is an extraordinarily rich synthesis of thought on the imaginative process Rodari draws from relevant philosophers, historians, psychologists, linguists, educators, and artists, not to reduce or categorize but rather to present the process in as full breadth as possible, and in doing so reveals his own poetics. Rodari would be an exciting addition to studies either in contemporary Italian fiction or in the classics of children's literature, for not only does he give new life to children's fiction in particular, his work may represent a new direction in narrative fiction as a whole.
Rodari's background and entrance onto the children's literary scene are rather interesting. He was born in 1920 in the town of Omegna (Novara) and spent his first nine years there. His father was a baker—who played the violin and who liked cats. Rodari's memories of his childhood include the warmth of the bakery oven and the fact that in his role as baker, his father had the privileged position of being the first one up in the town. His father was a model of integrity and commitment to his vocation as shown by several of the last images Rodari has of him how he used to burn the hair off his arms so that it would not end up in the dough, and how he tried in vain to warm himself by the oven after having gone out in a drenching rain to rescue a stranded kitten. He died a week later of pneumonia.
Rodari's own commitments have perhaps a more political tone to them, but a sense of dedication and compassion were obviously instilled in him from childhood. At age seventeen, he went to live on a farm near Lago Maggiore to teach Italian to the children of some German Jewish families who had emigrated to Italy. He learned German, studied German philosophy and literature and was especially impressed by Novalis' ideas on fantasy. He taught elementary school, describing himself as a terrible teacher but he entertained the children with stories he invented. At this point he started to make notes on how the stories originated and the various techniques he used to develop them, and kept a note- $ book called Quaderno di fantastica [Fantasy Notebook]. It was these first notes which would later be the basis for the more complete Grammatica della fantasia.
While working for the communist newspaper 1'Unita in Milano (1947-1950), he was asked to be in charge of a children's column for the paper and he made use of those notes in creating stories and nursery rhymes. Because of this experience, he was then asked to direct a weekly publication for children, I1 Pioniere,which he did from 1950-1953. He did not take this position voluntarily but rather out of a sense of political duty The job had to be done, and even his limited experience in writing nursery rhymes best qualified him for the job. Feeling that his personal vocation was less important than the needs of the party, he was disposed to contributing in whatever capacity he could. Y/ith the same personal resolve as his father, he not only edited the magazine but discovered an artistic vehicle for his own expression. Thus, though becoming involved in children's literature ”by accident," it became his vocation He published from 1950 on, and though his books were initially banned from schools because of his communist affiliation, they are now included in the regular curriculum.
