Unravelling Punishment The Representation of Punitive Practices in Golden Age Children’s Literature in France, England and America
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The thesis analyses the complexities at the heart of the representation of punitive
practices in French, English and American books published during the Golden Age
of children’s literature. This study juxtaposes twelve titles by major children’s writers
published between 1859 and 1905 which demonstrate a shift away from bodily
violence towards the internalisation of moral rules through less physical and more
insidious means of discipline. The works of this period have not been examined
from this perspective before, as the Golden Age tends to be associated with
pleasure and entertainment. Punishment and discipline did nevertheless also
continue to play a key role, resulting in complex and compelling works. In this
corpus, the representation of the prison and characters’ experience of confinement
express adults’ empathy for and anxiety about children’s desire for liberty, while
simultaneously justifying the need to limit their freedom. The writers in our corpus
acknowledge the potent impact that the vicarious experience of the suffering of
others has and use it to make narratives both pleasurable and instructive. Authors
are keen to explain and justify the use of punishment, but also acutely aware of the
impact this may have on the enjoyment of readers. This thesis explores not only
young characters’ experiences of punishment, but also its ricochet effects on adult
characters and readers. Because punitive rationales are entwined with adults’
protective justifications and their sense of obligation, punishment becomes a shared
experience between children (within and beyond the text) and adults. Punishment is
understood and proffered as a fundamentally collaborative enterprise, in which
children are given the illusion of autonomy, with varying degrees according to the
gender of the characters and the place of publication of the work in question. The
outcomes of this thesis have an interdisciplinary dimension, pertaining notably to
research on the construction of childhood, the history of emotions and space in
literature.
Authors
Clavel, CelineCollections
- Theses [3919]