The Fantasy of Family

Nineteenth-Century Children's Literature and the Myth of the Domestic Ideal
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-415-89937-6
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 202 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 321 g

Reihe: Children's Literature and Culture

The myth of the Victorian family remains a pervasive influence within a contemporary Britain that perceives itself to be in social crisis. Nostalgic for a golden age of "Victorian values" in which visions of supportive, united families predominate, the common consciousness, exhorted by social and political discourse, continues to vaunt the "traditional, natural" family as the template by which all other family forms are gauged. Yet this fantasy of family, nurtured and augmented throughout the Victorian era, was essentially a construct that belied the realities of a nineteenth-century world in which orphanhood, fostering, and stepfamilies were endemic.

Focusing primarily on British children's texts written by women and drawing extensively on socio-historic material, The Fantasy of Family considers the paradoxes implicit to the perpetuation of the domestic ideal within the Victorian era and offers new perspectives on both nineteenth-century and contemporary society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thiel, Elizabeth

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, Märchen, Mythen, Sagen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE
Redefining the Past

CHAPTER TWO

Snatched From "The Seed-plot" of Degeneracy: The "rescue" of the destitute child in tales of street arab life

CHAPTER THREE

Forever Cursed: Stepmothers, "otherness" and the reinscription of myth in transnormative family narratives

CHAPTER FOUR

"Uncles are one thing…[but] aunts are always nasty!": Relational failures and the discourse of gender bias in foster family stories

CHAPTER FIVE

Mother, Ally, Friend – or Foe?: The "dependable" female author as one of the family

CONCLUSION

Into the Future: The enduring potency of the nineteenth-century domestic ideal

APPENDIX

LIST OF WORKS CITED

NOTES

INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

Thiel, Elizabeth
Liz Thiel is a lecturer in Children's Literature at Roehampton University. A former journalist, her research interests lie in both historical and contemporary texts for children. Forthcoming publications include a study of the life and works of Victorian writer 'Brenda'.

Liz Thiel is a lecturer in Children's Literature at Roehampton University. A former journalist, her research interests lie in both historical and contemporary texts for children. Forthcoming publications include a study of the life and works of Victorian writer 'Brenda'.