Children Reciting Dante

Mario Federici was a well-known Italian critic and playwright, and married to Maria Agamben—a graduate in literature, teacher and journalist. During the fascist years, the couple went abroad where Maria Agamben continued to teach at Italian cultural institutes which included Montessori schools. It was that circumstance that allowed them to see from up close the exciting initiative in Barcelona: when they saw children embrace Dante in their own manner. As Trabalzini reports in her article, Agamben wrote several articles on this phenomenon. In this instance, Federici writes with absolute delight on what he and his wife had witnessed, seeing the children perform Dante, which also gave him reason to voice his utter disapproval of the old-fashioned ways of the theatre.