Men in Wonderland: The Lost Girlhood Of The Victorian Gentleman

Type

Book

Authors

Catherine Robson

ISBN 10

0691115265

ISBN 13

9780691115269

Tags

Criticism & Theory, Victorian, British & Irish, Non-Fiction, History, Victorian Era, Gender Studies, United Kingdom, European

Description

Fascination with little girls pervaded Victorian culture. For many, girls represented the true essence of childhood or bygone times of innocence; but for middle-class men, especially writers, the interest ran much deeper. In Men in Wonderland, Catherine Robson explores the ways in which various nineteenth-century British male authors constructed girlhood, and analyzes the nature of their investment in the figure of the girl. In so doing, she reveals the link between the idealization of little girls and a widespread fantasy of male development — a myth suggesting that men become masculine only after an initial feminine stage, lived out in the protective environment of the nursery. Little girls, argues Robson, thus offer an adult male the best opportunity to reconnect with his own lost self.

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