The article presents an interpretation of three narratives collected from three young professionals who volunteer as clowns for the young patients of a pediatric ward in a northern Italian hospital. Through their narratives, the clowns illustrate the role that imagination has in offering a different perspective on a given condition and context (in this case, illness and medical rules), and thereby in contributing to the strengthening of patient resources. The narratives, together with the notes from participant observation, trace the processes whereby the narrators came to identify with, and problematize, the characters of the whiteface clown and the Auguste type clown that the author first encountered during her fieldwork among Italian travelling entertainers, and then researched in the productions of artists (writers, musicians, painters, actors, and film directors).
The present study concerns an Italian nursery school (for children between 6 and 36 months of age) located in the periphery of Florence. La Giostra is an interesting and challenging project that originated in desires by educators and the Cospe non-governmental organization to change the local sociocultural context as well as efforts to give voice to immigrant families with very young children. The project succeeded in creating an educational environment characterized by a participatory approach and a willingness to promote and support an intercultural and multi/inter-linguistic institution characterized by communicative practices in which both foreign language speaking and Italian children could participate successfully.