Charles Dickens and the Victorian Child : Romanticizing and Socializing the Imperfect Child.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Malkovich, Amberyl.

Series:

Children's Literature and Culture Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dickens, Charles, -- 1812-1870--Criticism and interpretation.

Dickens, Charles, -- 1812-1870 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Children in literature.

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870--Criticism and interpretation.

Dickens, Charles.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (177 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Intro

CHARLES DICKENS AND THE VICTORIAN CHILD Romanticizing and Socializing the Imperfect Child

Copyright

Contents

List of Figures

Series Editor's Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Please Sir, I Want Some More: Learning . . . at Any Cost

Chapter 2 I Believe, I Believe!: Fairies, Their World, and Authorial Preservation

Chapter 3 Belittling and Being Little: Resisting Socially Imposed Physical and Gendered Limitations

Chapter 4 A Beautiful Decay: Disease, Death, and Eternal Longing of the Imperfect Child

Chapter 5 Mining the Missing Link: Contemporary Constructions of the Imperfect Child

Conclusion: The Perfection of Imperfection-The Consummation of the Misunderstood

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Malkovich, Amberyl Charles Dickens and the Victorian Child

ISBN:

9781135074265

OCLC:

827947075