Writing Through Boyhood in the Long Eighteenth Century - 9781644533208

Writing Through Boyhood in the Long Eighteenth CenturyAge, Gender, and Work\nAuthor(s): Chantel Lavoie\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Delaware Press, United States\nImprint: University of Delaware Press\nISBN-13: 9781644533208, 978-1644533208\nSynopsis\nWriting through Boyhood in the Long Eighteenth Centuryexplores how boyhood was constructed in different creative spaces that reflected the lived experience of young boys through the long eighteenth centurynot simply in children's literature but in novels, poetry, medical advice, criminal broadsides, and automaton exhibitions. The chapters encompass such rituals as breeching, learning to read and write, and going to school. They also consider the lives of boys such as chimney sweeps and convicted criminals, whose bodily labor was considered their only value and who often did not live beyond boyhood. Defined by a variety of tasks, expectations, and objectifications, boysreal, imagined, and sometimes bothwere subject to the .