Title Precocious children and childish adults : age inversion in Victorian literature / Claudia Nelson

Published Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012

Click on the following:
EBSCO eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource (224 pages) Contents The old-fashioned child and the uncanny double -- The arrested child-man and social threat -- Women as girls -- Girls as women -- Boys as men -- Conclusion: The adult reader as child Summary "Especially evident in Victorian-era writings is a rhetorical tendency to liken adults to children and children to adults. Claudia Nelson examines this literary phenomenon and explores the ways in which writers discussed the child-adult relationship during this period. Though far from ubiquitous, the terms "child-woman," "child-man," and "old-fashioned child" appear often enough in Victorian writings to prompt critical questions about the motivations and meanings of such generational border-crossings. Nelson carefully considers the use of these terms and connects invocations of age inversion to developments in post-Darwinian scientific thinking and attitudes about gender roles, social class, sexuality, power, and economic mobility. She brilliantly analyzes canonical works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, William Makepeace Thackeray, Bram Stoker, and Robert Louis Stevenson alongside lesser known writings to demonstrate the diversity of literary age inversion and its profound influence on Victorian culture. By considering the full context of Victorian age inversion, Precocious Children and Childish Adults illuminates the complicated pattern of anxiety and desire that creates such ambiguity in the writings of the time. Scholars of Victorian literature and culture, as well as readers interested in children's literature, childhood studies, and gender studies, will welcome this excellent study from a major figure in the field."--Project Muse Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Adulthood in literature. Children in literature. Children's stories, English -- History and criticism English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Adulthood in literature Books and reading Children in literature Children's stories, English English literature Englisch Das Kindliche Erwachsener Motiv Frühreife Kind Motiv Great Britain Roman Rumänien Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781421406121 1421406128

  Permalink