Title
Charles Dickens and the Victorian child [electronic resource] : romanticizing and socializing the imperfect child / Amberyl Malkovich.
ISBN
9780203066355 (electronic book)
9780415899086
Publication Details
New York : Routledge, 2013.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xvi, 160 p.) : ill.
Call Number
PR4592.C46 M35 2013eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
823/.8
Summary
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."--Publisher's website.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Series
Children's literature and culture.
Introduction
Please Sir, I Want Some More: Learning...at Any Cost
I believe, I believe!: Fairies, Their World, and Authorial Preservation
Belittling and Being Little: Resisting Socially Imposed Physical and Gendered Limitations
A Beautiful Decay: Disease, Death and Eternal Longing of the Imperfect Child
Mining the Missing Link: Contemporary Constructions of the Imperfect Child
Conclusion: The Perfection of Imperfection: The Consummation of the Misunderstood.
