Search

In Katherine Mansfield's short story 'Life of Ma Parker', the old, widowed charwoman is plagued by 'unbearable' thoughts of her deceased grandson Lennie: 'Why did he have to suffer so?' Lennie's unfortunate death in the story is not a solitary instance of tragic portrayal of working-class childhood in Mansfield's short fiction. In several of her tales she empathetically explores the marginalized existence of such children, occasionally juxtaposing their deplorable existence with their elite counterparts'. From social exclusion, child labour, parental rejection, infant and child mortality on the one hand to physical and verbal abuse, bullying in the school and appalling living conditions on the other; Mansfield's exploration of the working-class childhood in her short fiction is not only psychologically complex but sociologically significant. Focusing on the relevant short stories in her oeuvre, this brief analysis intends to closely examine such depictions of marginalized childhood experiences, particularly in light of the oppressive societal conditions that validate their repressive alienation and sufferings. Tracing various biographical circumstances that may have fostered Mansfield's deep empathy with the children's' predicament, this analysis also draws attention to her subtle oblique narrative strategies that effectively represent the plight of working-class children in a convincing and an ingeniously nuanced manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will examine literary representations of children as earning members of society against the history of child labour in India, as a means of understanding the relationship between class, labour, nationalism and childhood. It is part of my ongoing attempt to examine formulations of childhood in the Global South as a way of engaging with the concept of 'multiple childhoods' and examining their position vis-à-vis global, universal (and, according to scholars like Emer O' Sullivan, Western) paradigms of childhood. In the wake of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016, the historical and constitutional journey India embarks on is examined, beginning with the Indian Factory Act, 1881, along the path of its nascent nationhood, to The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 and the subsequent Amendment. The focus is on Mulk Raj Anand's Coolie and Anita Desai's The Village by the Sea as texts which portray two different modes of thinking about labouring children. Applying Viviana Zelizer's definitions of the 'uselessness' and 'usefulness' of children, my paper studies these two literary representations of useful childhood in India, published at different points in India's journey as a nation, in a political and historical continuum within which the futurity of a young country is embodied by the willing labour of youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Alice Randall, author of the 2001 novel "The Wind Done Gone," is presented. Randall discusses her work as a parody of the 1936 novel "Gone With the Wind" and an alternative account of slavery and the Old South. She explores the portrayal of women characters in her novel and the depiction of themes such as the rape and torture of children and the forced unpaid labor of children.

The primary focus of this essay is on the representation of child labour in Mulk Raj Anand's Coolie (1936). I argue that the young-ness of Munoo, the coolie-boy is significant for understanding Anand's social critique of the colonial–capitalist machinery and its reliance upon the sub-waged labour of children and adolescents. It is limiting to read the novel as merely a social critique, however, as it also opens up crucial debates on what it means for an Indian writer writing in English to represent a young ostracised citizen-subject who can hear English and mimic its sounds without having access to an English education. Anand's use of an adolescent is thus significant as an early attempt at foregrounding regional disenfranchisement in English. Through the tropes of listening, seeing, and smelling, and Anand's selective translations and transliterations, I show why Munoo's adolescence matters: it provides a social commentary as well as enabling Anand to highlight the conundrum of representing Munoo's semi-literate, non-English subjectivity into the English language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "A New England Girlhood (1889)," by Lucy Larcom is presented. It address the autobiographical self-observation on her life as a child worker in a mill and the context representation of child labour in her poem "Weaving." It also mentioned her childhood memories which inform a human right discourse that are connected to the deprivations suffered by children.

The article presents a literary criticism of the book series "The Moving Picture Boys," focusing on the second volume, "The Moving Picture Boys in the West," by Victor Appleton, released in 1913 by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. It considers how the book, focusing on boy filmmakers, mixes the juvenile fiction genres of career story and travel story. The author examines the book's depiction of childhood and child labor and explores its relation to imperial visual cultures of the 1910s.

The article presents literary criticism of the book "Helen Fleetwood" by Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna. Particular focus is given to the religious aspects of child labor in the novel. According to the author, the text conveys a mixture of conformist and reformist ideas of class conflict and childhood. It is suggested that Tonna saw the sufferings of child laborers as part of a larger divine plan leading to salvation. Other topics include paternalism and the genre of social-problem novels.

Frances Trollope's novel, The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy (1840), often gains credit from contemporary campaigners and modern critics both for alerting middle-class Victorians to conditions in the northern textile mills and contributing to the pressure on Parliament which led to further Factory Acts in the 1840s. Yet it also attracted torrents of abuse, with her descriptions slated as exaggerated, superficial and unreliable. Other women writers on this emotive topic did not attract similar venom. In order to understand why this was, this article focuses particularly on aspects of sight and vision, examining prevailing attitudes current in the late 1830s about the ways in which women could view and comment on social and political issues. Placing the discussion in an exact historical context reveals how Frances Trollope was believed to step across the line of propriety in a variety of ways: by her inclusion of illustrations and her adoption of monthly issues for the initial publication of this story; and by her words and images acknowledging the illicit sexual atmosphere imagined to be present amongst the mixed-sex workers in the factories. Her desire to tell the truth was compromised by her information coming from leading political agitators and out-of-date memoirs, as well as by her gender which typecast her as an unreliable witness. One particular illustration, 'Love conquered Fear', is analysed in this light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early years of the nineteenth century children laboured in factories, down mines, up chimneys, at sea -- and in the theatre. In this article, David Haldane Lawrence discusses the portrayal of child labour in the drama of the 1830s and 1840s, concentrating on five plays: The Factory Girl, The Factory Boy, The Dumb Man (or Boy) of Manchester, The Climbing Boy, and The Cabin Boy, whose child heroes extricate themselves from appalling conditions to confront their villainous oppressors, and through coincidental circumstances are elevated to a higher social position. But the realities of child labour are not fully portrayed on the stage, and the working boys of the period remain idealized figures. Here, a comparison is made between this idealization and the actual working conditions of child labourers. The theatricality inherent in the stage representation of child labour is further enhanced by the fact that the leading 'boy roles' were usually played by women, and the performances of the cross-dressed specialists in 'boy roles' is also discussed, as is the influence on 'factory boy' drama of socially relevant fiction, particularly Frances Trollope's novel about child labour, The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong the Factory Boy, published in 1840. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to determine the effect of work on the schooling of children in the age group of 12-14 years. years. In addition, the article provides evidence on the impact of hours of child work on other measures of learning, such as "time spent on studies at home", "'hours of study at school and at home" and "number of failures in school." The remainder of the article is organized into four sections. The first presents the general research background to the study, its estimation methodology and the chosen data sets, with a discussion of their salient empirical features. The second section presents and discusses the estimation results; and the third, the Sri Lankan evidence on the impact of occupational category on child learning. A final section offers some concluding remarks.

Georg Weerth (1882-1856), whom Friedrich Engels described as 'the first and most important poet of the German proletariat', was a contemporary of the Brontës. He spent his formative years in Bradford in the 1840s as corresponding clerk for one of the many German textile firms which had helped Bradford to become the wool capital of the world. Contrasting some of the main themes of Weerth's writings on England with those of the Brontës will demonstrate that, while they were witness to the same conditions and experienced similar reactions, they manifestly believed in different remedies. In particular, this discussion will focus on the industrial background to their works; the role of the working class and the mill owners; the system of education; the use of child labour; the power of the church; and the position of women in Victorian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the African continent has the highest child labour force participation rates, Asia contains the largest pool of child workers. The nature, magnitude and decline in child labour vary sharply between Asian countries. East Asia now has little child labour; however, child labour continues to have a significant presence in South Asia and in parts of Southeast Asia. This paper surveys the literature on child labour in selected Asian countries, paying special attention to its causes and consequences. The evidence presented shows that Asian child labour, especially in South and Southeast Asia, has some common features. For example, the bulk of child labour is in the 10–14 years age group. The phenomenon is largely rural, and child domestic labour constitutes a significant share. The participation rate of Asian children in the 15–17 years age group in economic activities, 48.4 per cent, is the highest in the world. There is a significant gender element in Asian child labour with boys outnumbering girls in economically active work, while the reverse is the case with domestic child labour. A focus of the survey is the empirical findings that provide insights into the policy instruments that may be needed in combating this phenomenon. The survey also discusses some of the important international and national initiatives that have been taken to reduce child labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]