Chapman, Amanda
(2015)
Self-consciousness and Childhood in the Long Nineteenth Century.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
My dissertation argues that self-consciousness should take its place beside innocence and precocity as one of a constellation of terms crucial for understanding how paradigms of childhood and children’s literature developed side by side. By focusing on attitudes towards children and self-consciousness, I illuminate the ways in which discourses for and about children affected not only children’s culture but also British culture at large. My chapters examine the positive value placed on self-consciousness in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century children’s literature; the reconceptualization of childhood and self-consciousness by Romantic writers, who attached a new anxiety about self-consciousness to the figure of the child; the incredible popularity of Peter Pan, which results from the eternal boy’s combination of unselfconsciousness and theatricality; and the ways in which the British public school ethic of good form as well as the literary tradition of the school story reflect increasingly stringent demands that children be unselfconscious.
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Details
Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
Status: |
Unpublished |
Creators/Authors: |
|
ETD Committee: |
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Date: |
17 June 2015 |
Date Type: |
Publication |
Defense Date: |
13 April 2015 |
Approval Date: |
17 June 2015 |
Submission Date: |
16 April 2015 |
Access Restriction: |
5 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 5 years. |
Number of Pages: |
216 |
Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > English |
Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
Refereed: |
Yes |
Uncontrolled Keywords: |
self-consciousness, children's literature, long nineteenth century, British literature, childhood studies |
Date Deposited: |
17 Jun 2015 18:49 |
Last Modified: |
17 Jun 2020 05:15 |
URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24913 |
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