What is the difference between a lie and a fantasy; when the subject is a child? Moving between literary and scientific texts; Sally Shuttleworth explores a range of fascinating issues that emerge when the inner world of the child becomes; for the first time; the explicit focus of literary and medical attention. Starting in the 1840s; which saw the publication of explorations of child development by Bronte and Dickens; as well as some of the first psychiatric studies of childhood; this groundbreaking book progresses through post-Darwinian considerations of the childs relations to the animal kingdom; to chart the rise of the Child Study Movement of the 1890s. Based on in-depth interdisciplinary research; The Mind of the Child offers detailed readings of novels by Dickens; Meredith; James; Hardy and others; as well as the first overview of the early histories of child psychology and psychiatry. Initial chapters cover issues such as fears and night terrors; imaginary lands; and the precocious child; while later ones look at ideas of child sexuality and adolescence and the relationship between child and monkey. Experiments on babies; the first baby shows; and domestic monkey keeping also feature. Many of our current concerns with reference to childhood are shown to have their parallels in the Victorian age: from the pressures of school examinations; or the problems of adolescence; through to the disturbing issue of child suicide. Childhood; from this period; took on new importance as holding the key to the adult mind.
#2565308 in eBooks 2004-05-19 2004-05-05File Name: B0043D22X8
Review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. a few reviewsBy melomaniac"Deacute;jagrave; Vu displays a rare conceptual strength and the ability to read both canonical and more obscure documents in a unique and forceful fashion."- Jean-Michel Rabateacute;. University of Pennsylvania"An original and learned study that brings together a broad range of themes and authors under this seemingly unremarkable experience."- Gregory Ulmer. University of Florida"Bold and highly provocative. Compelling and refreshing."- Afterimage"No less ambitious than an Arcades Project looking at the cultural history of the twentieth century: an ambition that constitutes this books greatest achievement."- Colloquy"A truly interdisciplinary project. revealing how the study of mediality - when complemented with aesthetic theory. cultural history. literature. and psychoanalysis - can critically construct a past that is yet to come."- Cultural Critique"One comes out of the other side of the book witha productively destabilized understanding of deacute;jagrave; vu."- Janus Head1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. trippyBy P Kronenberghsreading this book. with its wide-ranging and thorough coverage of cultural memory and aestehtic communication. is trippy - made me do a few double-takes on material I thought I knew. highly recommended
