L’importanza di chiamarsi letteratura. La letteratura per l’infanzia e le tesi di Christopher Booker sull’origine e la funzione delle storie

Recently, in different fields of research (psychological, evolutionary, cognitivist) many studies have appeared inquiring the how and why human beings have always been telling stories. These researches produce hypothesis that provide precious hints as to what the ultimate aim, meaning and nature of storytelling – and thus of literature – can be. Applied to the study of children’s literature, these trends of research can open new and interesting perspectives and hermeneutic directions, contributing to the definition of criteria according to which it can be possible to recognize which books, among all children’s books, possess the necessary characteristics to be called a ‘literature’. In this article the thesis of Christopher Booker on the origin and the deepest function of stories are analyzed – together with those of other scholars – and are used to try and see if, according to them, it is possible to detect the kind of books that can be considered more truly artistic, literary, somehow ‘universal’, also among children’s books.