Lo Struwwelpeter di Heinrich Hoffmann nella traduzione di Gaetano Negri. Tra comico-grottesco e umorismo didascalico-moraleggiante

The paper examines Heinrich Hoffmann’s children’s book Der Struwwelpeter in comparison with its 1891 Italian translation by Gaetano Negri, focusing on the linguistic tools of the comic and the grotesque through which the work’s pedagogical message is conveyed. The extraordinary success of the ten illustrated children’s stories in Germany was largely due to the fact that the German bourgeoisie of the late Biedermeier period recognised itself in these pedagogical methods of exemplary stories and punishments, which aim not only to impress but also to entertain children, thanks to the musicality of the verses and the simplicity of the «funny» illustrations (Stocchi 1986). Negri’s 1891 translation was equally successful in Italy, reflecting the deep attention the Milan-born writer and politician accorded to children’s education. In his version, which differs stylistically from the sobriety and clarity of the German verses, he modifies some of the comic-grotesque elements of the original, using explications and other devices considered more appropriate to late 19th-century Italian culture, giving the book a distinctly educational and moralising tone, typical of children’s literature of the time. These adaptations include, for example, the explicit explanation of the moral at the end of each story, which leads to an increase in the length of the texts, the use of mocking and derisive epithets, and occasional sneering judgments of the protagonists. The comic and paradoxical elements of the original, which contain aspects of authoritarian pedagogy, are thus transformed – particularly in some stories – into sharp humor and derisive portrayals of the characters, or into cautionary messages directed at the young reader.