Again, this is not "hagiography" in traditional sense, but...
Edmondo De Amicis in the "monthly stories" from his "Cuore" book
(published 1886, an enormous number of readers until the late '70)
writes in a form that inherits many features of hagiography to
describe the lives of young heroes that suffered great pain
(and usually died) while defending their country
or rescuing their mothers or other kids in danger.
De Amicis was a "socialista umanitario" and not religious at all
(religion is absent from his book). Umberto Eco wrote already 1962
an "Elogio di Franti" (the vilain of the book), but only from the
'70 "Cuore" begun to lose his role as a canonic reading for young
people. Anyway it is still referred to as "il libro Cuore" and we
call "una storia da libro Cuore" a story full of misfortune and
suffering.
You can look at "Cuore" and its "racconti mensili" at
http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/testiinhtml/c/cuore/index.htm
Francesco Caviglia
Romansk Institut
Aarhus Universitet
Tel (voice) (45) 8942 1934
Fax (45) 8616 3861
e-mail [log in to unmask]
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