Encounters with Wild Children : Temptation and Disappointment in the Study of Human Nature.
Title:
Encounters with Wild Children : Temptation and Disappointment in the Study of Human Nature.
Author:
Benzaquén, Adriana S.
ISBN:
9780773576117
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (400 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- Introduction -- PART ONE: Telling Stories of Wild Children -- 1 The Accounts -- 2 The List, the Class, the Story-Form -- PART TWO: Of Savages, Philosophers, and Naturalists -- 3 Peter of Hanover and the Wild Girl of Songi -- 4 The Debates -- PART THREE: Civilizing the Savage, Educating the Child -- 5 The Wild Boy of Aveyron -- 6 Victor's Afterlife -- PART FOUR: Variations on a Theme: Brutalization, Abuse, and Freedom -- 7 Wolf Children -- 8 Confinement and Freedom -- Epilogue: The Other Child -- Appendix: Lists of Wild Children -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.
Abstract:
Since the early seventeenth century, stories of encounters with strange children in unusual circumstances have been recorded, circulated, and reproduced in Europe and North America not simply as myths, legends, or good tabloid copy but as occurrences deserving serious scrutiny by philosophers and scientists. "Wild children" were seen as privileged objects of knowledge, believed to hold answers to fundamental questions about the boundaries of the human, the character and significance of civilization, and the relation between nature and culture, heredity and environment.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
Click to View