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 The Persistent Puppet: Pinocchio's Heirs in Contemporary Fiction and Film
 Rebecca West
Seminar Introduction
Cavalieri
from Le avventure di Pinocchio, 1924
Carlo Lorenzini (pen name Collodi) created the puppet who longed to be a boy more than a century ago, yet Pinocchio has lived on, both in popular culture and in literary and filmic versions of the tale. One of the most read books in the world, The Adventures of Pinocchio was originally written in serial form for an Italian children's magazine. Collodi killed off the puppet in what he thought was the last episode; until, that is, he was urged by his editor to continue the already very popular story.

Professor Rebecca West of the University of Chicago tackles several salient questions in her analysis of Pinocchio and popular culture: Why is this story so enduring? How have writers and filmmakers reworked the original tale? How is it that Roberto Benigni has been obsessed for decades with making a film about Pinocchio? Is Pinocchio Italy's most genuine national emblem? Lastly, what does this tale say to us today about questions of identity, class and gender?
Learning Objectives
  • Describe the historic situation in Italy that gave rise to the writing of Pinocchio.
  • Explain how major writers and novelists (e.g., Calvino, Coover) of the twentieth century have revisited and revised the story.
  • Recount the various readings (e.g., Christian, psychoanalytic, feminist) that scholars have used to interpret the classic.
  • Relate how the story of Pinocchio may well be an exploration of class and race struggles.
Sessions

Session 1 The Value of Pinocchio
Session 2 Collodi: His Works and His Italy
Session 3 Pinocchio and Children's Literature
Session 4 Pinocchio and "Serious" Fiction
Session 5 The Blue Fairy and the Fantastic
Session 6 Rewriting Pinocchio
Session 7 Pinocchio in Film
Session 8 Disney's Pinocchio
Session 9 Futuristic (and Future) Pinocchios
Contributors


Credits
Copyright 2002 the University of Chicago.
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