Abstract

Our paper aims at outlining the two main conceptions of childhood in the 19th century and at identifying the way in which these two conceptions manifested themselves in the literary discourse – which is a discourse of marginality – of 19th-century English writers such as Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy. The paper’s secondary aim is to challenge readers into considering how much of the views upon childhood have changed, whether we may look back to older perspectives upon childhood and education, and upon children generally