1st Edition
The Making of the Modern Child Children's Literature in the Late Eighteenth Century
This book explores how the concept of childhood in the late 18th century was constructed through the ideological work performed by children's literature, as well as pedagogical writing and medical literature of the era. Andrew O'Malley ties the evolution of the idea of "the child" to the growth of the middle class, which used the figure of the child as a symbol in its various calls for social reform.
Introduction: The English Middle Classes of the Late Eighteenth Century and the Impetus for Pedagogical Reform 1. The Coach and Six: Chapbook Residue in Late Eighteenth-Century Children's Literature 2. Class Relations in Middle-Class Children's Literature: Interacting with and Representing the Poor and the Rich 3. The Medical Management of the Late Eighteenth-Century Child 4. Towards the Self-Regulating Subject: Teaching Discipline in Pedagogical Systems and Children's Books 5. Molding the Middle-Class Subject of the Future: Applied Lessons and the Construction of Gender Roles Conclusion: he Trajectory of Children's Literature into the Early Nineteenth Century: Moving Towards a Middle-Class Form of Fantasy Notes Works Cited
Biography
Andrew O’Malley is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Ryerson University, Canada.
"I would cetainly recommend this work to anyone interested in the history of childhood and its literatures. The scholarship is exemplary, and I was constantly discovering things that I should have known but did not. The theory is sound and not so obstrusive as to detract from the analysis it supports, and what the argument lacks in scope it makes up for in detail." --John Morgenstern, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada
