Giochi d'infanzia

In Japan, at the beginning of the 20th century, a profound revision of educational processes and gender formation was implemented. Boys and girls become the perspective model of adult citizen values. The modern education system gives literary impetus and popularity to stories about childhood and adolescence, the so-called shōnen mono (children's stories). In the two stories presented here, Tanizaki Jun'ichirō confronts these new values, anticipating some of the characters of his most famous mature production and approaching the theme of education from a critical point of view. Shōnen (Adolescents, 1911) and Chiisana ōkoku (The Little Kingdom, 1918) show how the writer dedicated his writings to childhood not because he was nostalgic for the past but because children were essential to his artistic vision.