Marnie Campagnaro

University of Padova | UNIPD · Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology FISPPA

During his career as an artist and a designer, Bruno Munari achieved a special bond with the infant universe. He was one the most pioneering and ingenious thinkers of the 20th century, and explored the area of visual narration in children’s literature with sublime results. My paper aims to provide an overview of Munari’s original approach in visual...

Nel corso della sua prolifica attività editoriale destinata all’infanzia, Bruno Munari ha dedicato alla dimensione ludica uno spazio narrativo e visivo rilevante. Già a partire dagli anni Quaranta del Novecento, libro, gioco ed educazione si configurano come un incrocio fondamentale nella produzione artistica e nella riflessione critica dell’artist...

Sitting, eating, talking around a table: these actions have been performed by men and women of different times, places and traditions. The table as a research object can be included in some recent developments of the history of education, of the history of children's literature and in some literary studies dedicated to this topos. Tables are consta...

Research into the nature of the landscapes in fairy-tales is not a new field. The representations of space in fairy-tales have been investigated in many studies from different perspectives. Nonetheless, there is still little research about domestic settings. This paper is an effort to fill this gap. In my essay, I will compare how domestic settings...

There are two ways in which a text may be illustrated: an artist can use a literal, descriptive, denotative mode, or a symbolic, implied, connotative mode. In the denotative mode, an artist’s illustrations are a direct and literal imitation of the “text” reality, while in the connotative mode, ideas and concepts are not directly signified but are i...

Bruno Munari was an Italian artist, graphic designer, and illustrator who combined art and design to great effect in his visual art and books. During his long, interdisciplinary career, Munari experimented with many artistic possibilities: painting, illustration, sculpture, design, graphics, teaching, poetry, and writing. He also cultivated a pecul...

The home represents one of the most sacred settings in children’s literature. It is a place where identities are shaped, connections established and boundaries defined. The idea of home as a domestic hearth was first conceptualised and codified in the 19th century. However, it was only in the 20th century that the home assumed its central role in r...

This article reports on a course module designed to promote an ecocritical and new materialist approach to children's literature and to support student teachers' skills regarding sustainability. The course module was offered in autumn 2020 and was completed by 260 students of children's literature with no previous scholarly knowledge about ecocriti...

[ENG] Children’s and young adult (YA) literature cultivates the pleasure of reading and contributes to building literacy skills. However, it also seems to offer a promising contribution to discussing resilience with children. There are many reasons for this: it nourishes imagination, reinforces literary and aesthetic literacy, promotes moral belief...

Contemporary children’s literature has developed a growing interest in the interconnectedness between humans and the environment and in the ongoing exchange and negotiation of ways to be in the world. These new directions in children’s literature consequently challenge teachers of children’s literature in higher education. The study of contemporary...

Campagnaro, M., Daly, N., & Short, K.G (2021). Editorial: Teaching Children’s Literature in the University: New Perspectives and Challenges for the Future. Journal of Literary Education, (4), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.7203/JLE.4.21403 - Children’s literature is an area of frequent scholarship, reflecting its influential position in telling stories,...

Many cultures have tales in which the main character wears a particular item of clothing or is invariably portrayed with a specific accessory. This character then embarks on an adventure-packed journey during which he or she must face a ferocious and sometimes deadly foe. Little Red Riding Hood is perhaps the fairytale that is the most deeply woven...

Chapter 4. - Campagnaro M. (2021) Picturebooks and aesthetic literacy in early childhood education. In Å.M. Ommundsen, G. Haaland & B. Kümmerling-Meibauer (Eds.), Exploring Challenging Picturebooks in Education. International Perspectives on Language and Literature Learning (pp. 79-98). Oxon/New York: Routledge. - In their everyday lives, children...

6th International Seminar New Directions in Children’s Literature Research: "The Symbiotic Child: Rethinking the Vegetal through Children’s Literature" ONLINE CONFERENCE 8-9 April, 2021 Program

Today’s editorial output of nonfiction picturebooks about the features of houses has become rather diversified. The works range from creative proposals for infants right up to ingenious picturebooks illustrating house-building techniques or historical developments of architecture. These picturebooks often use hybridized narrative forms. This chapte...

This paper explores the potential of picturebooks in an educational context. It presents the form and the function of postmodern picturebooks. It explains why and how teachers can use them with their children and it underlines some benefits: picturebooks enhance the level of visual literacy and develop pupil’s metacognitive skills. Finally, it prop...

ABSTRACT Picturebooks are by no means a homogeneous body of texts and they require different approaches to interpret their meaning-making mechanisms. A wide variety of challenges can be offered by contemporary picturebook research. One of these challenges refers to the investigation of a singular typology of picturebooks: picturebooks with no pictu...

Picturebooks are by no means a homogeneous body of texts and they require different approaches to interpret their meaning-making mechanisms. A wide variety of challenges can be offered by contemporary picturebook research. One of these challenges refers to the investigation of a singular typology of picturebooks: picturebooks with no pictures. How...

M. Campagnaro (2020). “Libri per liberare i bambini dalla banalità. Ullallà”. Riflessioni intorno alla collana “Tantibambini” (1972-1978). In T. Pironi (Ed.), Autorità in crisi. Scuola, famiglia, società prima e dopo il ’68. (227-234). Roma: Aracne. DOI: 10.4399/978882553255519 *** Nel 1972 nasce la collana “Tantibambini” per i tipi della casa edi...

Rodari conceived of little things as a space for experimentation and freely exercising the processes of the creative imagination and of invention. - SOURCES - https://ilbolive.unipd.it/it/news/fiore-rodari-letteratura-piccole-cose https://youtu.be/hDdbx-EnkVs - INSPIRATION PROJECT - There is a very popular Italian children's song that often we s...

Materiality in Bruno Munari’s Book Objects: The Case of Nella notte buia and I Prelibri, Libri & Liberi, 2019, 8 (2), 359-379, DOI: 10.21066/carcl.libri.8.2.7 This paper reviews the primacy of materiality in Bruno Munari’s work based on the case study of two of his picturebooks. Bruno Munari was one of 20th-century Italy’s most eclectic figures. O...

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, trans...

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 th...

Innovative picturebooks about the shapes and structural features of houses, or the diffusion of architectural heritage or knowledge were already around in the 1970s but today’s editorial output of non-fiction picturebooks has become rather more diversified. The works range from creative proposals for infants (concept books and ABC books for toddler...

Pedagogia Oggi / Rivista SIPED / anno XVII / n. 1 / 2019 / pp. 171-184 / ISSN 2611-6561 - https://ojs.pensamultimedia.it/index.php/siped/article/view/3353/3206 The home plays an extremely important part in children's literature. It can record and project the moods and the psychological, affective, social and cultural facets of its occupants. The h...

CAMPAGNARO, Marnie. Do touch! How Bruno Munari's picturebooks work. Rivista di Storia dell‘Educazione, [S.l.], v. 6, n. 1, mag. 2019. ISSN 2384-8294. Disponibile all'indirizzo: <https://www.rivistadistoriadelleducazione.it/index.php/RSE/article/view/194>. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4454/rse.v6i1.194. This essay is based on a historical corpus of Br...

Der Erste Weltkrieg führt in der italienischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur zum Erscheinen neuer Formen von Propaganda. Vielmehr noch, Kinder- und Jugendliteratur wird als ein mächtiges Werkzeug aufgefasst, das zur Mitteilung emotional durchdringender und täuschender Botschaften an Kinder und Erwachsene gleichermaßen eingesetzt wird. Die gegenwärtig...

The aim of the paper is to investigate crucial questions on the relationship between clothing, history and fashion in fairy tales. What types of clothes are described in fairy tales, and what purpose do they serve? Do fairy tales contain historical traces of the fashions of the day and, if so, what is the nature of these references? Which features...

Many cultures have tales in which the main character wears a particular item of clothing or is always portrayed with a specific accessory. This character then embarks on an adventure-packed journey during which he or she has to face a ferocious and sometimes deadly foe. “Little Red Riding Hood” is perhaps the fairytale most deeply woven into the hi...

Though they were not conceived or created for children, fairytales have always succeeded in striking a chord with the world of childhood ever since the dawn of civilization. Their sturdy animism certainly facilitated this process of attraction, with their talking animals, wonderful clothes, and magical objects. The items that cover, protect and ado...

Il saggio affronta il tema della competenza narrativa, declinandolo alla luce delle potenzialità educative degli albi illustrati: perché è così importante lo sviluppo delle competenze narrative in un bambino? Quali sono le positive ricadute educative della pratica della lettura in questo ambito? Nel corso della trattazione, si scoprirà che il dipan...

This essay examines the epistemological issue of defining children’s literature for ages 0-3 years and investigates the dynamics and the methods that lead children to develop, in a gradual but increasingly autonomous manner, the myriad methods of reading picturebooks and building an initial rapport. These methods help broaden the shared experience...

The body is a human’s first home. It is the first physical substance we come into contact with, and the first impression of ourselves we offer. It thus goes without saying that our introduction to the world is through our body. In the first months of life, touch is the most effective sense after hearing for understanding the physical characteristic...

Along with the Great War came new forms of propaganda, in Italian children’s literature too. In fact, children’s literature was adopted as a powerful communication tool, conveying emotionally pervasive and deceitful messages to children and adults alike. Today’s Italian literature for children no longer suffers from such a strong influence of warti...

Quando si definisce un libro per bambini “semplice”, implicitamente o esplicitamente, si lascia intendere che la trama ha una sola “piega” e si escludono, di fatto, possibili rimandi in termini di ulteriorità di senso, di mistero, di altrove da esplorare. In un libro “semplice” vi è gran poco da svelare perché la trama è liscia, lineare, dispiegata...

Il processo di ricostruzione del tessuto sociale, a partire dalle famiglie lacerate dalla guerra, intrapreso dopo il 1945, non poteva essere circoscritto ad una rapida e sbrigativa restaurazione della «normalità» prebellica. La ricomposizione delle famiglie dipendeva certamente dal ristabilimento della pace, della stabilità e di condizioni di vita...

International Workshop "Material, Spatial and Sensory Encounters with the Picturebook Object" Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul, 9-10 June 2017 Campagnaro M (2017) Do Touch! How Munari’s Picturebooks Work This paper looks at the corpus of Munari’s creations in which content, shape, colour, texture and material transform the book into...

6th International Conference European Network of Picturebook Research "Home and Lived-In Spaces in Picturebooks from the 1950s to the Present" University of Padova, Italy 28-30 September 2017 Campagnaro M (2017) The dark side of the kitchen: Children’s domestic roundtrips at night-time Abstract For children, home is the setting of many domesti...

Campagnaro, M. (2017). Eredità del Novecento. Il lascito munariano alla letteratura per l’infanzia. [A Twentieth-Century Legacy: Bruno Munari’s Gift to Children’s Literature]. Italica Wratislaviensia, 8 (2), 69-85. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15804/IW.2017.08.18 ABSTRACT - Bruno Munari left an important legacy to both Italian and international child...

Over the last forty years, spatiality has attracted increasing academic interest as a means to investigate children’s literature, its history and its underlying theory, both in Italy and abroad. It is a field intersected by exciting pedagogical ideas and categories which are being used to conduct research into children’s literature; they include li...

The visual dimension is very important in children’s lives, especially nowadays given that modern society bombards children and adolescents with visual stimuli. Although images have a stronger communicative impact on young people than the written word, few teachers and educators employ resources and educational spaces that foster the critical, visu...

Bruno Munari achieved a special bond with the children world. He firmly believed in the preservation of children’s mental elasticity and in the importance of ludic experimentation and playfulness in artistic research. For Munari, children possess a natural interest for exploration and investigation, making and building, communication and social in...

This article aims to provide a report of twelfth edition of the international conference The Child and the Book (Wroclaw, May 19 to 21 2016), dedicated to the relationship between play and children's literature. The conference, which was attended by scholars from around the world, was also the occasion to commemorate the centenary of the birth of p...

Campagnaro M (2015) (a cura di). La Grande guerra raccontata ai ragazzi. Roma: Donzelli, ISBN: 978-88-6843-190-7 ABSTRACT - Saggi di Marnie Campagnaro, Davide Boero, Ilaria Filograsso, Walter Fochesato e una selezione di proposte di lettura a cura di Marnie Campagnaro e Michela Marafini. Illustrazioni di Federico Maggioni. La Grande guerra raccont...

Policroma e mutante è la letteratura per l’infanzia, un universo affascinante e misterioso, spesso poco conosciuto anche dagli addetti ai lavori. Nonostante si inciampi sempre più frequentemente negli appetiti commerciali di redazioni allenate a vedere nel bambino più un consumatore da convincere che un lettore da formare, la letteratura per l’infa...

È possibile emozionare, divertire e appassionare i nostri ragazzi alla letteratura per l’infanzia, all’arte, alla scienza, al paesaggio e alla musica? Si possono creare dentro e oltre la scuola occasioni nelle quali i nostri bambini si cimentano in spericolate acrobazie del pensiero immaginifico e critico, imparano a stravolgere un problema, a mesc...

An unavoidable topos of Universal literature, the journey, be it real or imaginary, adventurous or searching, escapist or relating to knowledge, conceals the human desire for change: we are travelling because deep down there is something unexplored inside of us or in our lives that we want to know, and, if possible, change. The human need to err h...

The rapid and dizzy development of new technologies has significantly contributed to the modification of the human, social and cultural environment in which the contemporary child lives and acts. He sees, hears, touches, reads, feels, establishes relationships in a way, which is very different from that of his peers of twenty years ago. For instanc...

ncouraging narrative interests and skills in young readers is a formal commitment either for teachers and for scholars of children’s literature. It is a difficult and complex task. The well-known U.S. psycho-pedagogue Jerome Bruner (2007) has identified at least a couple of elements that can contribute to the development of a narrative sensibility...

Picturebooks are a valuable educational resource in the children's growth. Thanks to the peculiar language of the iconic narration, children can demonstrate, if properly stimulated, unexpected critical reading skills. In recent years, the Italian production of picturebooks has not only been aimed at preschool children, but has also been enriched by...

Leggere e ascoltare storie, rinarrarle, immaginarne di nuove permette al bambino di familiarizzare con le chiavi di lettura che gli consentono di aprirsi alla comprensione e all’interpretazione del mondo, dell’interiorità propria e altrui, e, quindi, in definitiva, che lo aiutano a vivere in modo più sereno e costruttivo. I libri di figure e gli al...

Il polimorfo universo della letteratura per l’infanzia si incunea negli studi di genere. Vi è, infatti, un’intima vicinanza fra la scrittura femminile e il mondo fiabico. Siffatta relazione è stata postulata anche da Italo Calvino che, nel suo saggio Novelline popolari siciliane tratto dall’opera Sulla fiaba, sottolinea come “il raccontare fiabe” s...

We owe Calvino not only the precious collection, transcription and philological editing of the Italian Folktales, but also, most importantly, a profound philosophical sensitivity and educational ideals which pervade his books for teens. He wrote illuminating stories about the importance of seeking for self-identity, and investigated matters such as...

Il contributo pedagogico della narrazione figurale - in termini di formazione estetica e sviluppo delle potenzialità cognitive ed immaginifiche nei bambini - è un tema molto dibattuto nel panorama internazionale della Letteratura per l'infanzia. In Italia, tuttavia, esso rappresenta un ambito di ricerca ancora poco esplorato: gli studi scientifici,...

How do children respond to a fairy tale illustrated by several illustrators? What about their modalities of choice and the preferences they express towards different artistic representations? How can visual literacy affect the literary education and the development of young readers? The observational study was carried out in a primary school of the...