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Constructing Childhood:
A Brief History of
Early Children’s
Literature in Western
Civilization

What is “children’s literature?”
What is “childhood?”
 Meaning of “childhood” is
ideological—socially constructed,
constantly evolving
 Books “for children” reflect
dominant cultural ideals
 Reinforce ideas about behavior,
morality, gender roles, class
structure, etc.—shape reader
 Reflect ideological lens of writer,
culture—not created in vacuum

Image: Rosemary Adcock, “Orphan Series”

Analyze children’s literature in order to . . .
 Uncover culture’s ideal views
of “childhood”
 Examine society’s concept of
self
 Interrogate individual author’s
relationship to broader
cultural contexts
 Viewed across time, provides
insight into our own concepts
of childhood and “normalcy”

Image: Arthur B. Houghton, Mother and Children Reading, 1860

The “Golden Age” of
Children’s Literature
 Ideology of the nuclear family takes
shape in early 19th century
 Home & family as haven in heartless
world
 Source of stability in increasingly
materialistic, fractious world
 Powerful “cult of childhood”—child as
icon of “lost” innocence, emblematic of
past golden age of humanity
 Tensions: hierarchies, gender, class,
race, literary marketplace

What did “childhood” mean?
Historical Highlights

 400 years ago: children born in state of sin ;
childhood reading about religious guidance,
indoctrination
 250-300 years ago: “invention of childhood” as
modern concept; children’s minds “a blank slate”—fill
with proper information—logical, didactic texts
 200 years ago: children naturally innocent; moral
compass to society—imaginative texts
 40 years ago: children need to read about harsh
realities of life

Protestantism & Roots of “Modern
Childhood” (17th & early 18th centuries)
 Ideal of universal literacy;
importance of print culture
 Children products of original sin;
prepare for adult religious
experience
 Instructional books, conduct books
 Primers: teach reading, but also turn
innately sinful children into spiritual
beings
 Themes of death, damnation,
conversion
Image: From New England Primer, circa 1690

A little light bedtime reading . . .
 Popular reading for
Protestant children: Book
of Martyrs (1563); The Day
of Doom (1662)
 Anti-Catholic account of
“Bloody Mary” reign
 Poem of damnation of
world
 Horrific scenes of violence,
mutilation, murder

Images: Thomas Foxe, Book of Martyrs, 1563; Michael
Wigglesworth, The Day of Doom, 1662

The Enlightenment (late 17th, 18th centuries):
Enter Modern Childhood

 John Locke (1632-1704)
 Some Thoughts Concerning
Education (1693)
 Young mind as tabula rasa (blank
slate)
 Children not burdened by original sin
 Logical beings awaiting proper
education—rational writings
 Whole new construction of childhood
—distinct phase of life
Image: John Locke

18th Century Groundbreakers
 John Newbery
 Bookseller/publisher
 Little Pretty Pocket Book
(1744) — first significant
story book specifically for
children
 Songs, poems, moral
tales, illustrations
 Instruct AND entertain

Image: John Newbery, Little Pretty Pocket Book, 1744

18th Century Groundbreakers

 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Emile (1755)—Children
should be raised in natural
settings, free to imagine
 Children naturally innocent,
moral – “The child is the father
of the man” (Wordsworth)
 Books should free children’s
imaginations
 Romantics influence writers of
Golden Age

Image: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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