1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910255074303321

Autore

Andrew Lucy

Titolo

The Boy Detective in Early British Children's Literature : Patrolling the Borders between Boyhood and Manhood / / by Lucy Andrew

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2017

ISBN

9783319620909

3319620908

Edizione

[1st ed. 2017.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (IX, 243 p.)

Collana

Critical Approaches to Children's Literature, , 2753-0833

Disciplina

809.89282

Soggetti

Children's literature

European literature

Literature, Modern - 19th century

Literature, Modern - 20th century

Children's Literature

European Literature

Nineteenth-Century Literature

Twentieth-Century Literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction: The Birth of the Boy Detective.- 2. The Corruption of Youth: Juvenile Delinquency and the Boy Detective Hero -- 3. Taming the Beast: Adolescence, Empire and the Detective's Boy Assistant.- 4. "Be Prepared!": Looming Conflict, Active Citizenship and the Rise of the Professional Boy Detective.- 5. Forever Young: The Cult of Childhood and the Schoolboy Detective.- 6. The Journey Continues? Boy Detectives beyond the Story Papers.- Appendix: Chronology -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

This book maps the development of the boy detective in British children's literature from the mid-nineteenth to the early-twentieth century. It explores how this liminal figure - a boy operating within a man's world - addresses adult anxieties about boyhood and the boy's transition to manhood. It investigates the literary, social and ideological significance of a vast array of popular detective narratives appearing in



'penny dreadfuls' and story papers which were aimed primarily at working-class boys. This study charts the relationship between developments in the representation of the fictional boy detective and changing expectations of and attitudes towards real-life British boys during a period where the boy's role in the future of the Empire was a key concern. It emphasises the value of the early fictional boy detective as an ideological tool to condition boy readers to fulfil adult desires and expectations of what boyhood and, in the future, proper manhood should entail. It will beof particular importance to scholars working in the fields of children's literature, crime fiction and popular culture.