Circolazioni transnazionali di letture morali nell’Europa del secolo lungo, una storia di transfert culturali

Abstract

From the nineteenth century in the European continent, we assist to an exploitation of the mor- alizing reading for children developed, from this moment, in a considerable number of versions and translations. Far from being limited in the extent in which generations of historians have enclosed them, the study of these school’s readings should be instead oriented towards their extraordinary mobility. It’s interesting to note that in most cases, these writings are carriers or free reinterpretations of a biblical-pedagogical moral developed within the German space at the end of the nineteenth century, of which Heinrich Pestalozzi, Johannes Tobler, Heinrich Zschokke or even Joahnn David Wyss are grounded representatives. Starting from the study of two cornerstones of children’s litera- ture of the nineteenth century, the Goldmacher-Dorf of Heinrich Zschokke (1771-1848) and the Swiss Robinson of Johann David Wyss (1743-1818), in this paper we question the objective and underlying causes related to the important recovery of these writings in the different cultural parts of the Switzerland and, at the same time, across the national borders. Departing, besides, from the assumption that every printed book undergoes a transformation from one cultural or political context to another, using the conceptual instrument of cultural transferts, we will try to clarify the characteristic re-semantization phenomena of these two best sellers.