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The child reader and American literature, 1700-1852

Weikle-Mills, Courtney
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1181758570

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
As the large numbers of children’s books published in early America indicate, child readers played a major role in the spread of literacy and the rise of print culture in the new nation. Even more strikingly, the most popular American literary texts, from Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, were primarily addressed to a child audience. Even texts that were not originally addressed to children, such as Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, quickly became the province of young readers, leading to later arguments that, in the words of D.H. Lawrence, “the old-fashioned American classics” are “children's books.” Yet, while much work has been done on particular kinds of early American readers, such as the female reader, the child reader has often been overlooked by critics perhaps eager to counter age-old claims that American literature, and hence the study of it, is “childish.” My dissertation tells the story of how and why children came to be central figures in the formation of the American reading public, focusing on key historical moments in which the figure of the child reader instigated larger shifts in the cultural understanding of literature and citizenship. In particular, I argue that children’s reading practices played a crucial role in narratives about the origins, activities, and limitations of American citizenship, suggesting that the ideal American citizen and reader was, first and foremost, a child.
Jared Gardner (Advisor)
Literature, American
childrens literature

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Weikle-Mills, C. (2007). The child reader and American literature, 1700-1852 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1181758570

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Weikle-Mills, Courtney. The child reader and American literature, 1700-1852. 2007. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1181758570.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Weikle-Mills, Courtney. "The child reader and American literature, 1700-1852." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1181758570

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1181758570
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.