Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) and Carlo Collodi’s Le Avventure di Pinocchio (1883) are among the most influential classics of children’s literature. Firmly rooted in their respective British and Italian national cultures, the Alice and Pinocchio stories connected to a worldwide audience almost like folktales and fairy tales and have become fixtures of postmodernism.
Although they come from radically different political and social backgrounds, the texts share surprising similarities. This comparative reading explores their imagery and history, and discusses them in the broader context of British and Italian children’s stories.

Laura Tosi is a professor of English literature at the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Italy. Her research is in Elizabethan drama and children’s literature. She has published works on literary fairy tales and adaptation, and co-edited the first history of English-language children’s literature written in Italian.

Peter Hunt is a professor emeritus of English and children’s literature at Cardiff University, UK. He has lectured at more than 150 universities and colleges in 23 countries, and has produced 30 books and 500 papers and reviews on the subject.

Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University. He lives in Greenville, North Carolina.

C.W. Sullivan III is Distinguished Professor of arts and sciences at East Carolina University and a full member of the Welsh Academy. He is the author of numerous books and the on-line journal Celtic Cultural Studies.

Laura Tosi with Peter Hunt

Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 237
Bibliographic Info: appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6543-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3194-3
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1

Part One. Theories, Choices and Contexts 7
1. Alice Meets Pinocchio: Parallel Readings, National Stereotypes and Cultural Associations 9
2. Books, Canons and Characters: Pinocchio in Wonderland and Alice in Tuscany 25
3. Carlo and Charles: Italy in the Age of Pinocchio, England in the Age of Alice 37

Part Two. Origins: Folktale, ­Fairy-Tale and Fantasy Traditions 59
4. Pinocchio as fiaba, Alice as ­Fairy-Tale: Folktale and ­Fairy-Tale Traditions 61
5. Fantasy and Form in Alice and Pinocchio 102

Part Three. New Journeys: Postmodernist
Experiments with Alice and Pinocchio and Parallel Genre Readings in Empire Fictions 143
6. The Postmodernist Journeys of Alice and Pinocchio: Adventures in Transnational and Transtextual Identities 145
7. Childhood, School and Empire in Italy and the UK: Hughes and De Amicis, Henty and Salgari 167

Appendix: “Strange Meeting in ­Wonder-Tuscany” by Peter Hunt 195
Chapter Notes 199
Works Cited 203
Index 223

• Elisa Frauenfelder International Award

• Winner, the AIA Senior Prize—Associazione Italiana Anglisti

• “Stimulating and well-structured, with in text references that connect sections addressing related topics, and careful handling of translation issues…an excellent tool both for students first approaching transnational children’s literature and for scholars performing advanced studies in nineteenth-century Italian and/or English children’s literature or transnational comparative literature.”—English Studies

• “Proves to be an important text for both comparative literature scholars and fans of these characters. It influence on the fields of comparative literature and children’s literature will be felt for many years to come”—Mythlore

• “The wealth of insights offered by this fabulous journey will appeal to a wide range of readers…” —Comparative Literature Studies

• “Laura Tosi, with Peter Hunt, offers an important work of what might be called creative criticism here. Fresh, funny, and extremely insightful, it provides a model of how children’s literary criticism can partake of the delight found in fantasy for young people. That being said, this is a serious work of analysis, too, refreshing in its energy and enthusiasm, making it a thoroughly enjoyable read while changing our understanding of national and global Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio.”—Dr. Zoe Jaques, senior lecturer in children’s literature, University of Cambridge.