This contribution fits in with a relatively recent research path that aims to reconstruct the history of educational relations by also taking social diversity and the gender roles of the subjects concerned into account, in the light of the great deal of historiographical material aiming to give substance to entities that are often considered in an abstract and symbolic manner, even within a long obsolete pedagogical tradition. This work particularly dwells on the debate carried on between the 18th and 19th century in the history of western culture with respect to the social role of motherhood, considered by intellectuals and politicians as a value to be rediscovered in order to avoid, amongst other things, the damage caused by a high child mortality rate. The Enlightenment tradition, and more specifically the thinking of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, forms the basis for a new paradigm of childhood charged with the redeeming task of regenerating humankind and that is linked to a view of motherhood exalted in its immutable naturalness. What tends to emerge is a bourgeois view of female identity that is triumphant at the symbolic level in 19th century religious, pedagogical and juridical percepts, but becomes a moral constraint for women and may thus be considered as antithesis to every form of intellectual and social emancipation. While, for women, being a mother would increasingly be considered a duty, for some men «of exception» being a loving father would mean a new kind of yearning and a «place» of utopian thinking.
Questo contributo si inserisce in un percorso conoscitivo, relativamente recente, che intende ricostruire la storia delle relazioni educative tenendo conto sia delle diversità sociali, sia dei ruoli sessuali dei soggetti coinvolti, alla luce di una molteplicità di apporti storiografici che hanno inteso restituire un «corpo» ad entità spesso considerate in modo astratto e simbolico anche all’interno di una lunga e desueta tradizione pedagogica. Il saggio si sofferma, in modo particolare, sul dibattito sviluppatosi fra Sette e Ottocento nella storia della cultura occidentale sul ruolo sociale della maternità intesa da intellettuali e politici come un valore da riscoprire al fine di evitare, fra l’altro, i danni causati dall’alto tasso di mortalità infantile. Alla tradizione illuminista e più specificamente al pensiero di Jean-Jacques Rousseau va ricondotta l’elaborazione di un nuovo paradigma dell’infanzia, alla quale si affida un compito salvifico di rigenerazione dell’umanità, e che si coniuga ad una visione della maternità esaltata nella sua immutabile naturalità. Si tende a definire, così, una visione borghese del l’identità femminile, trionfante sul piano simbolico nella precettistica (religiosa, pedagogica e giuridica) ottocentesca, che finisce tuttavia col rappresentare, per le donne, un vincolo morale considerato in antitesi con ogni forma di emancipazione intellettuale e sociale. Mentre per le donne essere madri sarà sempre più insistentemente considerato un dovere, negli stessi anni, per alcuni uomini «d’eccezione», essere padri amorevoli ha rappresentato un desiderio di tipo nuovo e un «luogo» di progettualità utopica.
Covato, C. (2010). Fra norma e cura. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL, CULTURAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES, 2, 95-116.
Fra norma e cura
COVATO, Carmela
2010-01-01
Abstract
This contribution fits in with a relatively recent research path that aims to reconstruct the history of educational relations by also taking social diversity and the gender roles of the subjects concerned into account, in the light of the great deal of historiographical material aiming to give substance to entities that are often considered in an abstract and symbolic manner, even within a long obsolete pedagogical tradition. This work particularly dwells on the debate carried on between the 18th and 19th century in the history of western culture with respect to the social role of motherhood, considered by intellectuals and politicians as a value to be rediscovered in order to avoid, amongst other things, the damage caused by a high child mortality rate. The Enlightenment tradition, and more specifically the thinking of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, forms the basis for a new paradigm of childhood charged with the redeeming task of regenerating humankind and that is linked to a view of motherhood exalted in its immutable naturalness. What tends to emerge is a bourgeois view of female identity that is triumphant at the symbolic level in 19th century religious, pedagogical and juridical percepts, but becomes a moral constraint for women and may thus be considered as antithesis to every form of intellectual and social emancipation. While, for women, being a mother would increasingly be considered a duty, for some men «of exception» being a loving father would mean a new kind of yearning and a «place» of utopian thinking.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.