Medieval Literature for Children

Kline, Daniel T.

doi:10.4324/9780203055403

Cited by 14 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…This is beginning to change (e.g. Blake 1993;Kline 2005;Rutter 2007;Chedzoy et al 2007;Knowles 202), but there is still a striking dearth of research compared to the attention devoted by literary scholars to post-seventeenth-century material for and about children. For example, the survey of literature for children edited by Peter Hunt (1995) included just one chapter on the entire period up to c. 1700, while more recently Adrienne Gavin's (2012a) edited volume on the child in British literature from the medieval period onwards includes only two papers on medieval material.…”

Section: Medieval Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Interdisciplinarity, Archaeology and the Study of Medieval Childhood

Lewis¹

2014

Medieval Childhood

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Children's lives are important, both in their own right because childhood is a universally experienced stage of life, and because the perception and treatment of children both reflects and impacts on society more widely. However, children's lives are elusive to the archaeologist, as children leave less physical trace than adults in the material record (e.g. Lillehammer 1989; Chamberlain 1997, 249). In order to find archaeological evidence for childhood we need to know what it looks like; but in order to know what it looks like, we need to find it: the ultimate taphonomic conundrum. In attempting to resolve this, it is clear that we should consider the contribution other sources of evidence can make. This chapter explores analyses pertaining to medieval children carried out within four non-archaeological disciplines − History; Art History; Literature; and Folklore Studies − in the hope that it may inspire and encourage greater interdisciplinary familiarity and exploration. Considering approaches from these disciplines is not intended to suggest that there are (or should be) rigid distinctions separating material of interest to different disciplines: this is simply not the case − an illustrated parchment account of a medieval saint's life, for example, is simultaneously text, art and artefact. But different disciplines do use different techniques and approaches, and so the aim in this chapter is to look at the potential that different analytical approaches have to illuminate and expand our knowledge and understanding of medieval children and childhood, and how this can complement archaeological approaches. We will also see that the prevailing theoretical framework within which research is conducted is crucial to the capacity of scholars, in any discipline, to engage with the evidence for childhood. These disciplines inevitably touch on material from other disciplines such as Philosophy, Theology and Historical Geography which will not be discussed separately for reasons of space. These are of course not the only disciplines from which archaeologists of medieval childhood can potentially learn: Social Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Education and Social Geography have all contributed useful information and ideas while Medicine, Pathology, Forensics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology provide many invaluable investigative techniques. But these disciplines are not generally concerned with medieval material as such, so will not be included here.

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Section: Medieval Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%