The book as a transitional object: children, fiction, and book-object

Abstract

This article suggests the application of the concept of transitional object (from Donald Winnicott’s Theory of Illusion-Disillusion, of 1971) to book-objects for children. We initially traced an overview of the theoretical discussions that involve the relations between the fictional narrative, the text (as a set of symbols and a literary tool), and the book (as a three-dimensional support). Then we tried to demonstrate that a bookobject is also a toy, which ultimately lead us to the introduction of Winnicott’s proposal of transitional phenomena and – in dialogue with authors such as Ilsa Goulart, Gilles Broügère and Neil Gaiman – to the exposure of the arguments that aim to justify the adaptation of the concept of transitional object to the analysis of book-objects.