Childhood and Innocence in American Culture

Heartaches and Nightmares

James M. Curtis

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2023
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978782266
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Social Sciences

This collection argues that the romanticized conflation of "childhood" and "innocence" in American culture has been on a steady decline at least since the 1960s--largely due to postmodern critiques of overarching narratives involving both "the child" and the "innocence" of childhood. Additionally, this collection highlights and analyzes examples of children's literature and culture throughout the 20th century (and into the 21st) which pointedly defy traditional, idealized notions of "childhood". Such an analysis serves to reiterate the idea that the romanticized notion of "childhood" which has pervaded American culture for over two centuries is little more than a cultural construction that bears little to no resemblance to the actual, lived experience of American children.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Introduction
• Deconstructing Twentieth-Century Childhood
• The Domesticated Adventuress
• “A Place for You”
• Finding (and Losing) the American Child
• Toward a More Postmodern Childhood
• “Growing Up Too Fast, Too Soon”
• In Support of Idyllic Childhood
• Unknown Childhoods and the Fear of Science in the Cold War
• “Four Little Activists
• “Technically I’m 112”
• Index
• About the Contributors