Grandparenthood between joy and care

Abstract

This contribution proposes a reflection on grandparenthood and the role it has played - and may still play today – in educational relationships, both in terms of family imagery and intergenerational memory. Grandparenthood is therefore considered in the light of those peculiarities that have built its archetypal profile as the guardian of ancient wisdom, from the Old Testament to the fairy tales narrated in children’s literature, such as those of Perrault and Perodi. The symbolic significance of such a profile implies a dialogical and reciprocal relational posture that pertains as much to the cultural and spiritual formation of the younger generations as to our more general way of living and conceiving temporality among past, present and future. If in the frenzy of the present time this posture appears to be in crisis, the archetype of grandparenthood is still alive and present, and often takes on concrete manifestations, capable of offering pedagogically fruitful reflections between existence and history.