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Table of contents (16 chapters)
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The Child in British Literature: An Introduction
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Medieval and Early Modern Literature (1200–1700)
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Eighteenth-Century, Romantic, and Victorian Literature (1700–1900)
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Edwardian, Modern, and Contemporary Literature (1900–2010)
Keywords
About this book
Reviews
'A sustained investigation of the representation and construction of childhood in literature across the centuries is long overdue, but here at last is a carefully assembled volume that comprehensively covers the subject. The impressive selection of essays, of consistently high quality, takes us from medieval literature, through the early modern and Victorian periods, to Elizabeth Bowen, Virginia Woolf and Iain McEwan. Many major landmark texts are discussed both works of literature and the key contextualising works by Locke, Rousseau, Freud and others. But the reader will find much that's surprising here too: neglected titles, forgotten authors, new contexts. Taken together the essays gathered here will challenge many of our assumptions about the place of childhood in culture and the ways in which this has or hasn't shifted over time. We will certainly no longer be able to believe that the child has not been an important and continuous theme throughout all of English Literature.' - Matthew Grenby, Reader in Children's Literature, Newcastle University, UK
'Gavin is to be congratulated on editing such a coherent volume, which successfully tracks bigger shifts in literature as well as society's construction of childhood, while each essay nevertheless retains its individual focus and nuance.' - Merridee L. Bailey, University of Adelaide, Australia
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Child in British Literature
Book Subtitle: Literary Constructions of Childhood, Medieval to Contemporary
Editors: Adrienne E. Gavin
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230361867
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-34827-1Published: 27 February 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-34549-6Published: 01 January 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-36186-7Published: 20 February 2012
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 266
Topics: Literary Theory, Cultural Theory, Children's Literature, Childhood, Adolescence and Society, British and Irish Literature