The Otherness of the child’s body: the ambivalence of those small imperfect bodies as portrayed in Literature and Children's Literature

Abstract

The article analyzes the metaphorical relationship between the child’s body and childhood images produced in the XIX century. The literature and children’s literature tell symptoms of ambiguity of the otherness of the baby's body, in a period when the similarities between childhood and madness were discussed for the first time. In the XIX century, the literature reveals the ambivalence of adult behavior towards children, in order to underline the distance between children and adults. The literary figures show the real authenticity of childhood, its mystery, its unknown dimension.

Keywords

• Estraneità
• Corpo bambino
• Infanzia
• Letteratura per l’infanzia
• Ambivalenza