immunized infancy: an interpretation of the pied piper of hamelin

Abstract

In recent decades, studies of the history of private life have posited infancy as a social and historical construct in which different cultural, economic, and philosophical elements intervene. Based on an interpretation of “The Pied Pieper of Hamelin” (BROWNING, 2003; BROWNING; PISU, 1980; GRIMM; GRIMM, 2000, 1816), this article analyzes the founding characteristics of modern infancy using as Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito’s concept of communitas (2003). Utilizing both the author’s fundamental notion of the latter and several modern and contemporary bibliographic sources about the legend collected by the Grimm brothers, our paper shows how this tale is connected to political changes that led to contemporary forms of pedagogy and shaped what Esposito calls a “modern immunization process” (ESPOSITO, 2005)--a process whereby individuals are disconnected from the commitments and communal duties of pre-modern, pre-nationalist social bonds. This process also affects childhood, which became, by the end of the 19th century altered, isolated, excluded from social bonds with adults, and converted into what we know as “infancy.” Is a different relation with infancy—one that doesn´t exclude children from the community--possible? This paper seeks to open a path toward this possibility.