The Widening World of Children’s Literature

This book looks at the changing shape of children's literature in English from the 18th to the 20th century. Susan Ang examines the dialectic between "enclosure" and "exposure," control and freedom of both fictional child and child reader, and how the balance of these forces has altered over time. The author also looks at the representation of the child in the English novel from the 1830s to the 1860s--the period preceding the publication of Alice in Wonderland, the first major work of literature for children. Writers as well-known as Lewis Carroll, Louisa M. Alcott, Rudyard Kipling and Charlotte Brontë are examined, as are works which have been previously neglected.