Fashioning Childhood in the Eighteenth Century: Age and Identity (Studies in Childhood, 1700 to the Present) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754655091 ISBN 13: 9780754655091

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

This innovative collection of essays re-examines conventional ideas of the history of childhood, exploring the child's increasing prominence in eighteenth-century discourse and the establishment of the category of age as a marker of social distinction alongside race, class and gender. While scholars often approach childhood within the context of a single nation, this collection takes a comparative approach, examining the child in British, German and French contexts and demonstrating the mutual influences between the Continent and Great Britain in the conceptualization of childhood. Covering a wide range of subjects, from scientific and educational discourses on the child and controversies over the child's legal status and leisure activities, to the child as artist and consumer, the essays shed light on well-known novels like Tristram Shandy and Tom Jones, as well as on less-familiar texts such as periodicals, medical writings, trial reports and schoolbooks. Articles on visual culture show how eighteenth-century discourses on childhood are reflected in representations of the child by illustrators and portraitists. The international group of contributors, including Peter Borsay, Patricia Crown, Bernadette Fort, Brigitte Glaser, Klaus Peter Jochum, Dorothy Johnson and Peter Sabor, represent the disciplines of history, literature and art and reflect the collection's commitment to interdisciplinarity. The volume's unique range of topics makes it essential reading for students and scholars concerned with the history and representation of childhood in eighteenth-century culture.

About this title

About the Author

Anja Müller, Universität Siegen, Germany

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754655091
• ISBN 13: 9780754655091
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260
• Editor: Müller Anja