This book is an extensive study of the figure of the lost child in English-speaking and European literature and culture. It argues that the lost child figure is of profound importance for our society, a symptom as well as a cause of deep trauma. This trauma, or void, is a fundamental disruption of the structures that define us: self, history, and even language.
This puts the figure of the child in context with previous research that the modern conception of ‘a child’ was formed alongside modern conceptions of memory. The book analyses the representation of the lost child, through fairy tales, historical oppression and in recent novels and films. The book then studies the connection of the lost child figure with the uncanny and its centrality to language. The book considers the lost child figure as an archetype on a metaphysical and philosophical level as well as cultural.
Table of Content
1. Introduction – The Figure of the Child.- 2. The Child in the Story.- 3. The Child Lost in History.- 4. The Child Lost in Our Time.- 5. The Uncanny Child, a Ghostly Return.- 6. The Hole in Language.- 7. Conclusion.
About the author
Mark Froud is an Independent Scholar. His Doctorate was through University of the West of England, UK and his Masters of Research at Bath Spa University, UK. His publications include essays in two international collections The Tapestry of the Creative Word in Anglophone Literatures and Another life = Une autre vie.
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