Attitudes Towards the Child in Children's Literature

Attitudes Towards the Child in Children's Literature
Author: Lydia Prexl
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2009-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3640380045

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Sussex, language: English, abstract: Prior to the eighteenth and nineteenth century, childhood was not considered a separate stage of development. People at that time rather thought of children as miniature adults without a legal status. Due to new upcoming theories of philosophers such as John Locke or Jean-Jacques Rousseau however, children were seen in a new light. Thus, from the late eighteenth century onwards, parents slowly began to look at their children as individuals with concerns, wishes and fears much different from the adult. This new perception of childhood initiated authors to write literature both for and about children, which ultimately led to a new literal genre that we nowadays take for granted: children's literature. The following essay will compare the attitudes towards the child in children's literature of the Victorian Age with the attitude portrayed in inter-war children's literature. It will explore how the perception of the child in the nineteenth century changed, how this change is reflected in the fiction of the time and how it affected the children's literature of the inter-war period. It will argue that whereas early children's literature was mostly didactic and addressing the adult rather than the child reader, novels of the middle and late nineteenth century concentrated more on young readers and their specific needs and desires by introducing a more entertaining and fabulous style of writing. The essay will then take a closer look at children's literature of the early twentieth century and demonstrate that fiction of that period continued to put the child in the focus of attention while at the same time dealing with new topics and offering ways of escapism with respect to the threat of the Second World War.

Attitudes towards the child in children's literature: A Comparison of the Victorian Age and the Inter-War Period

Attitudes towards the child in children's literature: A Comparison of the Victorian Age and the Inter-War Period
Author: Lydia Prexl
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 13
Release: 2009-07-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3640380088

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Sussex, language: English, abstract: Prior to the eighteenth and nineteenth century, childhood was not considered a separate stage of development. People at that time rather thought of children as miniature adults without a legal status. Due to new upcoming theories of philosophers such as John Locke or Jean-Jacques Rousseau however, children were seen in a new light. Thus, from the late eighteenth century onwards, parents slowly began to look at their children as individuals with concerns, wishes and fears much different from the adult. This new perception of childhood initiated authors to write literature both for and about children, which ultimately led to a new literal genre that we nowadays take for granted: children's literature. The following essay will compare the attitudes towards the child in children's literature of the Victorian Age with the attitude portrayed in inter-war children's literature. It will explore how the perception of the child in the nineteenth century changed, how this change is reflected in the fiction of the time and how it affected the children's literature of the inter-war period. It will argue that whereas early children's literature was mostly didactic and addressing the adult rather than the child reader, novels of the middle and late nineteenth century concentrated more on young readers and their specific needs and desires by introducing a more entertaining and fabulous style of writing. The essay will then take a closer look at children's literature of the early twentieth century and demonstrate that fiction of that period continued to put the child in the focus of attention while at the same time dealing with new topics and offering ways of escapism with respect to the threat of the Second World War.

Late-Victorian Heroic Lives in the Writings of Frank Mundell

Late-Victorian Heroic Lives in the Writings of Frank Mundell
Author: Moniez Baptiste
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2017-08-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527500640

This study explores the work of Frank Mundell, a late-Victorian author for the Sunday School Union. Mundell focused on heroism and represented various kinds of heroic deeds and figures, regardless of gender, in his books. Writing for educative, as well as entertaining, purposes, he avoided the use of didacticism and he endeavoured to combine the traditional and the modern in the stories he chose to tell. Mundell’s favourite format was that of the prosopography, putting together several heroic lives or incidents. He was careful to dedicate each of his volumes to one topic in particular, thus distinguishing the different types of heroic deeds from one another. His writings belong to four series, or collections, each highlighting a specific version of heroism, from instances of the mundane performed in a familial context to extraordinary deeds. He wrote about such bold acts as those featuring in the stories of brave firemen fighting devouring flames, fearless sailors in tempestuous seas, determined miners risking their lives to save their comrades, or intrepid explorers facing perils in the wide world. This book analyses each of his publications, highlighting the elements belonging to his representation of heroism as a whole.

The Impact of Victorian Children's Fiction

The Impact of Victorian Children's Fiction
Author: J. S. Bratton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2015-09-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317365631

Originally published in 1981. Many of the classics of children’s literature were produced in the Victorian period. But Alice in Wonderland and The King of the Golden River were not the books offered to the majority of children of the time. When writing for children began to be taken seriously, it was not as an art, but as an instrument of moral suasion, practical instruction, Christian propaganda or social control. This book describes and evaluates this body of literature. It places the books in the economic and social contexts of their writing and publication, and considers many of the most prolific writers in detail. It deals with the stories intended to teach the newly-literate poor their social and religious lessons: sensational romances, tales of adventure and military glory, through which the boys were taught the value of self-help and inspired with the ideals of empire; and domestic novels, intended to offer girls a model for the expression of heroism and aspiration within the restricted Victorian woman’s world.

Victorian Children’s Literature

Victorian Children’s Literature
Author: Ruth Y. Jenkins
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2016-09-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3319327623

This book reveals how the period’s transforming identities affected by social, economic, religious, and national energies offers rich opportunities in which to analyze the relationship between identity and transformation. At the heart of this study is this question: what is the relationship between Victorian children’s literature, its readers, and their psychic development? Ruth Y. Jenkins uses Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection to uncover the presence of cultural anxieties and social tensions in works by Kingsley, MacDonald, Carroll, Stevenson, Burnett, Ballantyne, Nesbit, Tucker, Sewell, and Rossetti.

Precocious Children and Childish Adults

Precocious Children and Childish Adults
Author: Claudia Nelson
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2012-07-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1421405342

Especially evident in Victorian-era writings is a rhetorical tendency to liken adults to children and children to adults. Claudia Nelson examines this literary phenomenon and explores the ways in which writers discussed the child-adult relationship during this period. Though far from ubiquitous, the terms “child-woman,” “child-man,” and “old-fashioned child” appear often enough in Victorian writings to prompt critical questions about the motivations and meanings of such generational border crossings. Nelson carefully considers the use of these terms and connects invocations of age inversion to developments in post-Darwinian scientific thinking and attitudes about gender roles, social class, sexuality, power, and economic mobility. She brilliantly analyzes canonical works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, William Makepeace Thackeray, Bram Stoker, and Robert Louis Stevenson alongside lesser-known writings to demonstrate the diversity of literary age inversion and its profound influence on Victorian culture. By considering the full context of Victorian age inversion, Precocious Children and Childish Adults illuminates the complicated pattern of anxiety and desire that creates such ambiguity in the writings of the time. Scholars of Victorian literature and culture, as well as readers interested in children’s literature, childhood studies, and gender studies, will welcome this excellent work from a major figure in the field.

Aspects and Issues in the History of Children's Literature

Aspects and Issues in the History of Children's Literature
Author: Maria Nikolajeva
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 222
Release: 1995-06-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0313369283

The contributors to this collection of essays address children's literature as an art form, rather than an educational instrument, as has been the traditional approach. Scholars from 10 different countries present a variety of approaches to the history of children's literature, including views on sociological, semiotic, and intertextual models of its evolution. Other issues explored include influence and interaction between stories and their countries of origin. This strong presentation of international perspectives on children's literature will be a valuable resource for scholars of children's and comparative literature.

Charles Dickens and the Victorian Child

Charles Dickens and the Victorian Child
Author: Amberyl Malkovich
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2013-02-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1135074259

This book explores the ideas of children and childhood, and the construct of the ‘ideal’ Victorian child, that developed rapidly over the Victorian era along with literacy and reading material for the emerging mass reading public. Children’s Literature was one of the developing areas for publishers and readers alike, yet this did not stop the reading public from bringing home works not expressly intended for children and reading to their family. Within the idealized middle class family circle, authors such as Charles Dickens were read and appreciated by members of all ages. By examining some of Dickens’s works that contain the imperfect child, and placing them alongside works by Kingsley, MacDonald, Stretton, Rossetti, and Nesbit, Malkovich considers the construction, romanticization, and socialization of the Victorian child within work read by and for children during the Victorian Era and early Edwardian period. These authors use elements of religion, death, irony, fairy worlds, gender, and class to illustrate the need for the ideal child and yet the impossibility of such a construct. Malkovich contends that the ‘imperfect’ child more readily reflects reality, whereas the ‘ideal’ child reflects an unattainable fantasy and while debates rage over how to define children’s literature, such children, though somewhat changed, can still be found in the most popular of literatures read by children contemporarily.

Childhood in Victorian England and Charles Dickens' Novel "Oliver Twist"

Childhood in Victorian England and Charles Dickens' Novel
Author: Sirinya Pakditawan
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2007-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3638775720

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,5, University of Hamburg (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), 16 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In "Oliver Twist", Dickens presents the everyday existence of the lowest members of English society and realistically portrays the horrible conditions of the nineteenth century workhouses. Hence, in the story of Oliver Twist, Dickens uses past experiences from his childhood and targets the Poor Law of 1834 which renewed the importance of the workhouse as a means of relief for the poor. In fact, Dickens' age was a period of industrial development marked by the rise of the middle class. In the elections brought about by the accession of William IV in 1830, the Tories lost control of the government. Assumption of power by the Whigs opened the way to an era of accelerated progress. In this time period, children worked just as much, if not more, than some of the adults. After 1833, an increased amount of legislation was enacted to control the hours of labour and working conditions for children and women in manufacturing plants. The Poor Law of 1834 wanted to make the workhouse more of a deterrent to idleness as it was believed that people were poor because they were lazy and needed to be punished. So people in workhouses were deliberately treated harshly and the workhouses were similar to prisons. In the following, it will be analyzed how Dickens attacks the defects of existing institutions in his novel "Oliver Twist". Hence, it will be shown how Dickens creates a fictive world that was a mirror in which the truths of the real world were reflected. However, firstly, it is necessary to take a closer look at the historical background. Thus, the attitude of Victorian society towards the poor comes into view and with it the central issues of child labour, Poor Laws and workhouse conditions. Secondly, when regarding the central theme of