The Peripheral Child in Nineteenth Century Literature and Its Criticism

ISBN-13: 9781137452443 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 215 str.

Neil Cocks

Opis

Established accounts of the child in nineteenth century literature tend to focus on those who occupy a central position within narratives. The first part of this book is concerned with children who are not as easily recognised or remembered as Alice, Kim or Oliver Twist; the peripheral or neglected children featured in works by Dickens, Bronte, Austen and Rossetti. The return of the overlooked child to these texts acts like 'a return of the repressed', overturning accepted narratives concerning their structure and meaning. In the second part of the book, some of the more sceptical accounts of the nineteenth century literary child are challenged. 'Ethical' and 'historicist' approaches are shown to be resistant to the text-focused analysis offered in the first part of the book, resulting in an investment in a child that is knowable, 'real' and non-discursive.

Spis treści

Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: THE RETURN OF THE CHILD 1. The Child and the Return: Persuasion 2. The Child and the Letter: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 3. The Child and Transmission: 'Goblin Market' 4. The Child and the Thing: The Mystery of Edwin Drood PART II: HISTORY, ETHICS, AND ANALYSIS 5. The Queer Child: No Future and 'Dickens and the Construction of the Child 6. The Child and History: Strange Dislocations and The Mind of the Child Conclusion: Why Analysis? Notes Bibliography Index

O autorze

Neil Cocks is a lecturer in English and American Literature at The University of Reading, UK, and a member of its Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media. He has previously published on contemporary educational theory, children's literature, art theory, and the nineteenth century novel.