An Infant Nation
Childhood Studies and Early America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12880545 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anna Mae Duane (0000-0003-0711-0619, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Literature Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2005.00109.x |
| OpenAlex | W2090217214 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
The child, it has been said, is the last acceptable “other.” While minority scholarship has made us aware of the injustice and inaccuracy of infantilizing colonized and marginalized people, we have only begun to look with a critical eye at the narratives of sentimentality, emotionality, and inferiority attached to children. This article traces at the prevalence of the child‐as‐symbol in early American literature and culture in order to elucidate the stubborn stereotypes attached to children – and the study of children – and to introduce the groundbreaking work that has begun to analyze the complex cultural work performed by the American child. Finally, I argue that attending to the vulnerability and dependence of childhood offers the opportunity to rethink the fictive assumption that any one of us can fully occupy the position of the self‐reliant, wholly independent subject
Aesthetics · Art · Developmental psychology · Early childhood · Emotionality · Injustice · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Scholarship · Sentimentality · Sociology · Subject (documents · Symbol (formal · Vulnerability (computing · Gender Studies · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |