Through the Northern Gate
Childhood and Growing Up in British Fiction, 1719-1901
Published on 6. August 2012
XXIX, 244 pages
978-1-4539-0966-9 (ISBN)
Description
This study challenges critical orthodoxy by showing that childhood became a focus of interest in British fiction well before the Romantic period. It also argues that children in the Victorian novel, far from being sentimental figures, are psychologically unique and contribute positively and significantly to the narrative discourse. Contemporary ideology, the novelists' autobiographical and humanitarian impulses, and gender issues, are all examined as factors in this development. Works by the major authors are analysed alongside others by non-canonical and children's writers.
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10/1996
Peter Lang Verlag
€38.00
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Person
The Author: After taking her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from King's College, London, Jacqueline Banerjee has taught at universities in Canada, Ghana, India and England, and has also held a research fellowship at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. The author of numerous scholarly articles, she is currently teaching at Kobe College and in the graduate school of Konan University, Japan.
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Acknowledgements xi
- List of Illustrations xiii
- Notes on Editions xv
- Preface xvii
- Chapter One: The Child and Childhood in the Eighteenth-Century Novel 1
- 1. First Steps: Defoe to Fielding 2
- 2. False Starts: Tobias Smollett and Laurence Sterne 15
- Chapter Two: The Child in Early Nineteenth-Century Fiction 21
- 1. Jane Austen's Children 22
- 2. A New Strain: Sir Walter Scott and George Sand 31
- 3. Early Children's Fiction 34
- Chapter Three: Victorian Childhood and the Novelist's Vision 45
- 1. Victorian Childhood 45
- 2. Sibling Affections 54
- 3. The Forgiving Child 61
- Chapter Four: Child Death and the Novelist's Purpose 83
- 1. Frail Treasures 85
- 2. The Novelist's Purpose 88
- 3. "An Interior Confronting" 97
- Chapter Five: The Girlhood of the Victorian Heroine 109
- 1. Little Housekeepers 110
- 2. Intelligent Sisters 120
- 3. Budding Women 132
- Chapter Six: The Struggle for Manhood in Victorian Fiction 149
- 1. Sons and Heirs 150
- 2. Youthful Heroics 156
- 3. Towards "Brave Self-Reliance" 164
- Chapter Seven: Disclosing Children: Seen and Heard in Victorian Fiction 179
- 1. Supporting Roles 180
- 2. Speaking Parts 187
- 3. Actions of the Mind 191
- Conclusion 205
- Chronology 211
- Works Cited 213
- Index 235
- BM 1 245
