Reconsidering the Child: Representations of Childhood in The Once and Future King
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Huang, Zi-Hua
Abstract
The Once and Future King, one of the most well-known twentieth-century Arthurian retellings, has been considered a popular yet ambiguous children''s book for some subversive elements involved in the narrative. Probing into childhood representations in this tetralogy, this study aims to answer the ambiguity of this text in children’s literature and proposes that The Once and Future King is one of the early examples of radical yet revolutionary children’s books. Based on Raymond Williams’s cultural materialism, this thesis first distinguishes the discipline and the construction of childhood innocence in children’s literature, and then compares and contrasts White’s childhood representations to these literary conventions. With his two childhood accounts, the author T. H. White attempts to disrupt childhood innocence and furthermore advocates attention to the child in life. Recent decades have seen the validation of childhood studies, and The Once and Future King is proposed to be read in this new light on the child.
Subjects
The Once and Future King
T. H. White
childhood
innocence
cultural materialism
Raymond Williams
Kimberley Reynolds
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