Seeking Childhood
The Emergence of the Child in the Visual and Literary Culture of the French Long Nineteenth Century
9781837721320
Distributed for University of Wales Press
Seeking Childhood
The Emergence of the Child in the Visual and Literary Culture of the French Long Nineteenth Century
Exploring how art and literature transformed perceptions of children and childhood in France during the nineteenth century.
Seeking Childhood: The Emergence of the Child in the Visual and Literary Culture of the French Long Nineteenth Century offers key insights into the development of modern concepts of childhood, arguing that modern manifestations of such conflict are linked to internal demands for national sovereignty, independence, and self-determination. It provides detailed conceptual accounts of issues related to cultural and social identity which are central to our contemporary understanding of childhood and children. It demonstrates how art and literature function as key markers in understanding major cultural and social shifts, and in doing so, allows readers to appreciate the relationship art and literature share with society’s cultural development. The book features the author’s illustrations which function as a form of symbolist illustration, inspiring ideas, thoughts, and feelings that reflect the mood and transmit the key messages of each chapter.
Seeking Childhood: The Emergence of the Child in the Visual and Literary Culture of the French Long Nineteenth Century offers key insights into the development of modern concepts of childhood, arguing that modern manifestations of such conflict are linked to internal demands for national sovereignty, independence, and self-determination. It provides detailed conceptual accounts of issues related to cultural and social identity which are central to our contemporary understanding of childhood and children. It demonstrates how art and literature function as key markers in understanding major cultural and social shifts, and in doing so, allows readers to appreciate the relationship art and literature share with society’s cultural development. The book features the author’s illustrations which function as a form of symbolist illustration, inspiring ideas, thoughts, and feelings that reflect the mood and transmit the key messages of each chapter.
272 pages | 8 halftones | 5.43 x 8.5 | © 2024
University of Wales Press - Studies in Visual Culture
Art: Art--General Studies, European Art
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory
Table of Contents
Introduction
Elucidating Approaches to the Study
Chapter One
From the Twentieth Century to the Nineteenth Century: A Retrospective of Childhood
Chapter Two
Romantic Enlightenment: The Carte Blanche of Childhood, c. 1750 – 1850
Chapter Three
Negotiating the Dark Underbelly: Children of the Poor, c. 1830 – 1880
Chapter Four
Searching for Solace: Children of the Bourgeoisie, c. 1850 – 1920
Chapter Five
Toy Town Theatre: Material Acculturation and the Child, c. 1870 – 1900
Chapter Six
Breaking the Mould: Burgeoning Cultural Emancipation of the Child, c. 1880 – 1920
Conclusion
Finding the Child Within Us All
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index of Images