Fascination with little girls pervaded Victorian culture. This text explores the ways in which various 19th-century British male authors constructed girlhood, and analyzes the nature of their investment in the figure of the girl. In so doing, she reveals the link between the idealization of young girls and a widespread fantasy of male development - a myth suggesting that men become masculine only after an initial feminine stage. Little girls, argues Robson, othus offer an adult male the best opportunity to reconnect with his own lost self. This book contributes to a growing interest in the 19th century's construction of childhood, sexuality and masculinity, and illuminates their complex interconnections in a different light.
- ISBN10 0691004226
- ISBN13 9780691004228
- Publish Date 29 April 2001
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 15 January 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Princeton University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 264
- Language English
- URL https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7067.html