Proefschrift--Amsterdam. / Bibliography: 6th prelim. leaf.

Thesis--University of Zurich. / Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-Diss.--Freiburg im Breisgau. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.S.)--Long Island University, 1989. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-98).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1925. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 136-140.

Perhaps in no other activity does society express its fundamental values more distinctly than in the socialization of children. While historians of childhood search the past for clues to link the growth of the individual to the movements of society, most overlook children's literature. . Yet children's literature is specifically designed to (or does by indirection) communicate the basic elements of culture to the rising generation. In children's stories we find the artifacts of the process of socializing children in the past. This study examines the stories written for children in late eighteenth century England. At one level these stories reflect the attitudes to children and child-rearing that evolved in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; at another, they record the response to the social situation of a small group of educated reformers. The authors consciously promote a particular system of values, but not one specifically intended to prepare youth for industrial society. Rather, they present values that serve to protect their ideal of a reformed but traditional social order. The transitional state of eighteenth century society caused many to fear for its stability. Older problems of vice, crime, and poverty became more visible as the society became more urban and industrial. At the same time, a new class, unencumbered by the traditional social responsibilities embodied in landed property, was rising in wealth and power. Reformers sought to preserve the peace and order of society by attempting to improve the manners and morals of the lower orders and by systematically reinforcing the obligations of rich to poor. In the service of these goals, authors of children's stories directed their attention to youth, particularly middle class youth, for it was crucial to gain the allegiance of this group to the values that upheld the social order. In their stories they constructed realistic social situations in which to demonstrate the efficacy of these values and beliefs. They erected a model of harmonious society that accorded with a rational universe wherein diligence, frugality, honesty and benevolence inevitably led to security and happiness. They drew the boundaries within which the fulfilling life may be won, justifying the existing order by providing a reward for every virtuous child. The rock upon which their model of harmonious society rested was the family. Within the stable domestic family resides all virtue and happiness; it is the arena for all aspects of human life; its values maintain the stability of society. The primary function of the story-book family is to transmit these values to the young, to instill in the individual child those qualities that will prepare him for life in a peaceful orderly society. The image of the world and society that emerges from the children's stories of the late eighteenth century is not a direct reflection of actual conditions any more than the heroes and heroines of the stories represent the real behavior and experience of eighteenth century children. Nevertheless, we do see how at least part of society perceived its times, and, more important, the values thought necessary to sustain their way of life. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2007. / Title from title page screen, viewed on March 11, 2008. Dissertation Committee: Karen Coats (chair), Jan Susina, Christopher Breu. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 289-303) and abstract. Also available in print.

The primary sources for this study are Dickinson's poems and letters. The purpose is to examine child imagery in Dickinson's work, and the investigation is based on the chronological age of children in the images. Dickinson's small child exists in mystical communion with nature and deity. Inevitably the child is wrenched from this divine state by one of three estranging forces: adult society, death, or love. After the estrangement the state of childhood may be regained only after death, at which time the soul enters immortality as a small child. The study moreover contends that one aspect of Dickinson's seclusion was an endeavor to remain a child.

Not available / text

Text in Afrikaans / Met die nagaan van die kindverwysing in die poesie van Petra Mulller, blyk dit duidelik dat die verwysings deurgaans literer funksioneel is. Die digteres slaag daarin om die leser se buitekennis van die kind se lewensfeer te ontgin. Die gevolg is die bewusmaking van die vergelyking tussen kind en volwassene as literere gestaltes. Daaruit vloei die besef van die kunstenaar se werk as poging om die wereld te orden en te beskou deur die oe van die onbedorwe kind. Saam met die vele gedigte waar die ontginning van die kindverwysing bloot 'n verfraaiing van die inhoud as gevolg het, word dit as leimotief in Mulller se werk hoogs funksioneel. Die kindverwysing as tegniek word ook herinnering aan die aard van kunstenaarskap soos deur Miuller toegepas. Petra Mulller se oeuvre kan nie los gemaak word van die kindverwysing en die implikasies van die herhaalde gebruikmaking daarvan nie. / When looking at child references in the poetry of Petra Muller, it is obvious that they are literary functional at all times. The poet, as artist, manages to tap the readers' outside knowledge of the child's sphere of life. The result is the foregrounding of the comparison between child and adult resulting in the realisation of the artist's work as an effort to reshape his world by looking at it through the eyes of the unspoilt child. Together with the many poems where child references act mainly as a way of presenting such poems as enjoyable as possible, it becomes extremely functional as a leitmotif. The child reference as used by Muller as poetic technique also becomes reminder to the reader of what art is all about. Petra Muller's poems can not be read separately from the child reference and all it's implications. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)