The withered branch : representations of morally ambiguous and maleficent children in literature

Abstract

Researchers of childhood and child psychology tend to discuss the notion of moral corruption in children in terms of deviance and such studies have appeared late in the day. As such, social commentary and accompanying literature of any period have tended to depict the child from a purely sympathetic and often patronizing point of view, pitying the vulnerable child against a world which misunderstands and often mars him. The influence of Rousseau and his Emile (1762) is unavoidable in this period and so is the 18th century poetry of Blake, Wordsworth and their Victorian successors. In response, this study will analyse antithetical representations of childhood, focusing on the way children seem to have shed off their aura of vulnerability to reveal a more wilful, often dubious, moral agenda. The texts in parentheses (The Turn of the Screw, Lord of the Flies, Atonement and Lolita) will be primarily analysed and discussed in order to illustrate and legitimate this regression from innocence to moral corruption.