In one of the first studies of its kind, Orphan Texts seeks to
insert the orphan, and the problems its existence poses, in the
larger critical areas of the family and childhood in Victorian
culture. In doing so, Laura Peters considers certain canonical
texts alongside lesser known works from popular culture in order to
establish the context in which discourses of orphanhood
operated.The study argues that the prevalence of the orphan figure
can be explained by considering the family. The family and all it
came to represent - legitimacy, race and national belonging - was
in crisis. In order to reaffirm itself the family needed a
scapegoat: it found one in the orphan figure. As one who embodied
the loss of the family, the orphan figure came to represent a
dangerous threat to the family; and the family reaffirmed itself
through the expulsion of this threatening difference. Orphan Texts
will be of interest to final year undergraduates, postgraduates,
academics and those interested in the areas of Victorian
literature, Victorian studies, postcolonial studies, history and
popular culture.
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