BEYOND PINOCCHIO: ITALIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CARLO COLLODI’S WORKS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS (1877-1890)

My thesis focuses on the nineteenth-century Italian writer and journalist, Carlo Collodi. Specifically, it proposes a re-reading of the texts he wrote for primary school children from 1877 to 1890, centred around the child character of Giannettino. To date, these texts have received little attention, and are still regarded as revealing a conservative stance. This thesis develops a new re-reading of these texts and aims at their re-consideration within the discourse of Italian nation-building.