Le voci del non umano e le ibridazioni del corpo bambino. La letteratura per l’infanzia come meditazione intorno al rapporto uomo-natura

Abstract

Climate change and climate emergency demand that, more than ever today, the dominant thought, praxis, customs, and values of Western culture are reconsidered through the lens of a more integrated, holistic, and ecologic vision. The idea of a human being who, especially when s/he is a child, is to be considered and formed in terms of deep connection with the whole cosmos crosses Education from the theories of Jean Jacques Rousseau to the current trend of outdoor education. Still, the fallacy of anthropocentrism seems hard to eradicate. An overlooked yet powerful contribution to the development of an ecological mind and, even more deeply, of an ecological identity has been provided, since the second half of the Nineteenth century, by children’s literature, with its representations of non-human entities as active subjects, of strong relationships between humans and other living beings and, even more radically, of always possible hybridizations of the human – and especially of the human child’s – body. Children’s books, with their poetic and metaphoric strength, make our connection with those-who-are-not-us seem ontological even more than ecological, and can become precious tools for a truly profound rethinking of human nature.