| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
Front matter; Contents; Dedication; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Difference within; Popular orphan adventure narratives; The emigration of orphan children; Exile and return; Epilogue; Appendix; Notes; References; Index |
| Summary |
In one of the first studies of its kind, Orphan texts seeks to insert the orphan, and the problems its existence poses, in the larger critical areas of the family and childhood in Victorian culture. In doing so, Laura Peters considers certain canonical texts alongside lesser known works from popular culture in order to establish the context in which discourses of orphanhood operated.The study argues that the prevalence of the orphan figure can be explained by considering the family. The family and all it came to represent - legitimacy, race and national belonging - was in crisis. In order to reaffirm itself the family needed a scapegoat: it found one in the orphan figure. As one who embodied the loss of the family, the orphan figure came to represent a dangerous threat to the family; and the family reaffirmed itself through the expulsion of this threatening difference. Orphan texts will be of interest to final year undergraduates, postgraduates, academics and those interested in the areas of Victorian literature, Victorian studies, postcolonial studies, history and popular culture |
| Notes |
Originally published by Manchester University Press in hardback 2000 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
In English |
|
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, Oct. 10, 2018) |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
|
|
Orphans in literature.
|
|
Social & Cultural History.
|
|
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
|
|
English literature
|
|
Orphans in literature
|
| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9781526130594 |
|
1526130599 |
|
