This book examines representations of precocity in Victorian textual culture - canonical literature, children's fiction, scientific texts, and writing by children - to argue that precocity challenges the idea of progress. It considers how practitioners of literature and science from Wordsworth to Freud represented human development, and the way in which Darwin's "non-progressive model of evolution" troubled the existing model of progression by stages (from childhood inexperience to adult maturity and understanding). Roisìn Laing argues that the precocious child undermines the equation of growth with progress, and thereby facilitates other ways of imagining both individual and species development. The idea represented by the precocious child in Victorian culture - that the adult is not necessarily an improvement on the child, the human not necessarily an improvement on the ape - still troubles us today.
| ISBN: | 9783031413841 |
| Publication date: | 8th May 2025 |
| Author: | Roisín Laing |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan an imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 279 pages |
| Series: | Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture |
| Genres: |
Children’s and teenage literature studies: general Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 Literature: history and criticism |
This book examines representations of precocity in Victorian textual culture - canonical literature, children's fiction, scientific texts, and writing by children - to argue that precocity challenges the idea of progress. It considers how practitioners of literature and science from Wordsworth to Freud represented human development, and the way in which Darwin's "non-progressive model of evolution" troubled the existing model of progression by stages (from childhood inexperience to adult maturity and understanding). Roisìn Laing argues that the precocious child undermines the equation of growth with progress, and thereby facilitates other ways of imagining both individual and species development. The idea represented by the precocious child in Victorian culture - that the adult is not necessarily an improvement on the child, the human not necessarily an improvement on the ape - still troubles us today.
The Precocious Child in Victorian Literature and Culture features in the following genres: Children’s and teenage literature studies: general, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literature: history and criticism
The Precocious Child in Victorian Literature and Culture is available in Paperback
The Precocious Child in Victorian Literature and Culture was written by Roisín Laing and published by Palgrave Macmillan an imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland
The Precocious Child in Victorian Literature and Culture has 279 pages
Yes it is part of Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture series
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