Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-Century England: Literature, Representation, and the NSPCC

by Monica Flegel, Claudia Nelson

Overview

Considering a wide range of texts by authors such as Locke, Rousseau, Caroline Norton, Henry Mayhew, Frances Trollope, and Charles Dickens, Monica Flegel provides an interpretive framework for understanding the formation of child cruelty popularized by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The emergence of the NSPCC, Flegel argues, had material effects on the lives of children, and profound implications for the role of class in representations of suffering and abused children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409475248
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	04/28/2013
Series:	Ashgate Studies in Childhood, 1700 to the Present
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Monica Flegel, Department of English, Lakehead University, Canada.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1 Creating Cruelty to Children; Chapter 2 “Animals and Children”; Chapter 3 “What Eyes Should See”; Chapter 4 “Cannibalism in England”; Chapter 5 The Dangerous Child; Chapter 101 Conclusion;

Editorial Reviews

'Monica Flegel makes a major contribution to scholarship on the construction of childhood, child abuse, family intervention, and social welfare. This highly readable, interdisciplinary work will be a most valuable addition to the growing field of childhood studies.' Lydia Murdoch, Vassar College, USA ’A good resource work for students and scholars, Flegel’s text is accessible and lucid, offering some useful close readings within a historical context and interpretive framework. It could serve as a critical companion to studies of poverty, urban spaces, or delinquency.’ New Books on Literature-19 ’This book should be of interest to scholars and historians of nineteenth-century childhood, offering new readings of familiar texts as well as the presentation of altogether new material. It is a significant contribution to scholarship on the ideological work of childhood in the Victorian period.’ Journal of British Studies ’No one will read this book without admiring the skill and insight with which Flegel has built up a picture of [many] narratives.’ Victorian Studies 'Flegel's informative text is a timely addition to the Ashgate Studies in Childhood series... Flegel's often energetic and accessible text is a valuable addition to a broad spectrum of fields, including social history, Victorian studies and childhood.' English Studies '[This book's] strength lies in the way it presents well-known material in an original light. Its use of literary texts is particularly good...This excellent book is truly interdisciplinary and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the history of childhood in England and the representations of children's lives in literature and social policy.' Journal of Childhood in the Past 'This book adds to the growing field of studies of nineteenth-century childhood.' Dickens Quarterly

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