Evolution and Imagination in Victorian Children's Literature

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Children&, British
Cover of the book Evolution and Imagination in Victorian Children's Literature by Jessica Straley, Cambridge University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jessica Straley ISBN: 9781316530603
Publisher: Cambridge University Press Publication: June 6, 2016
Imprint: Cambridge University Press Language: English
Author: Jessica Straley
ISBN: 9781316530603
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication: June 6, 2016
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Language: English

Evolutionary theory sparked numerous speculations about human development, and one of the most ardently embraced was the idea that children are animals recapitulating the ascent of the species. After Darwin's Origin of Species, scientific, pedagogical, and literary works featuring beastly babes and wild children interrogated how our ancestors evolved and what children must do in order to repeat this course to humanity. Exploring fictions by Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charles Kingsley, and Margaret Gatty, Jessica Straley argues that Victorian children's literature not only adopted this new taxonomy of the animal child, but also suggested ways to complete the child's evolution. In the midst of debates about elementary education and the rising dominance of the sciences, children's authors plotted miniaturized evolutions for their protagonists and readers and, more pointedly, proposed that the decisive evolutionary leap for both our ancestors and ourselves is the advent of the literary imagination.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Evolutionary theory sparked numerous speculations about human development, and one of the most ardently embraced was the idea that children are animals recapitulating the ascent of the species. After Darwin's Origin of Species, scientific, pedagogical, and literary works featuring beastly babes and wild children interrogated how our ancestors evolved and what children must do in order to repeat this course to humanity. Exploring fictions by Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charles Kingsley, and Margaret Gatty, Jessica Straley argues that Victorian children's literature not only adopted this new taxonomy of the animal child, but also suggested ways to complete the child's evolution. In the midst of debates about elementary education and the rising dominance of the sciences, children's authors plotted miniaturized evolutions for their protagonists and readers and, more pointedly, proposed that the decisive evolutionary leap for both our ancestors and ourselves is the advent of the literary imagination.

More books from Cambridge University Press

Cover of the book Scaling by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Anesthesia for the High-Risk Patient by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Christian Democratic Workers and the Forging of German Democracy, 1920–1980 by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book The Economy of Ethnic Cleansing by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Allies or Adversaries by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Decolonisation and the Pacific by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book The New Legal Realism: Volume 1 by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Terrorism and Literature by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Beyond Human Rights by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Medically Unexplained Symptoms, Somatisation and Bodily Distress by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Gauge/String Duality, Hot QCD and Heavy Ion Collisions by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Jewish Radical Ultra-Orthodoxy Confronts Modernity, Zionism and Women's Equality by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book The Battle for Moscow by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Shakespeare, Music and Performance by Jessica Straley
Cover of the book Consciousness and the Self by Jessica Straley
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy