Between the household and the school : socialising the child in England, c.1400-1600

Abstract

This thesis explores the transmission and reception of literature concerned with childhood, and the socialisation of children, in England between 1400 and 1600. Literature reflects and fashions social concerns, and furnishes the opportunity to observe contemporary reactions and understandings of society, politics and religion, and in this case to understand a particular anxiety regarding the socialisation and behaviour of children. Reading networks which are addressed include parents, pedagogues, and the frequently overlooked reading group of children and young people. Throughout, I note how competing ideologies and interests are encountered in relation to particular audience networks, as well as the high probability that audiences were critical readers of texts, reading and resisting notions they encountered even as they were directed to accept them. In this thesis I develop a framework where I examine English vernacular literature in manuscripts and early printed books which guides readers towards understanding childhood and socialisation, and which explores the fashioning of child identity. I build on recent interest in tracing early print culture, which is both 'new' and 'conventional', 'transforming' the literary landscape, but also fixed and looking to the past. It is possible to observe how 'childhood' as a distinct phase oflife was conceptualised and understood by contemporary observers and to evaluate changing concepts of childhood socialisation over this period, as well as those aspects of behaviour which remained consistent over time. This evidence speaks about children in particular environments. I interpret this evidence by looking at the domestic household that was commonly made up of kin members, as well as large elite households where young children assumed functional working positions. In addition I analyse school environments to detect how the formal space of the school, particularly the Grammar School, served as an arena for the socialisation of children according to academic, religious and social criteria. In this way schools also served in establishing the new English Church by securing the religious orthodoxy of new generations. This research reflects wider developments occurring in English culture, society, and politics. In late-fifteenth and sixteenth century texts and particularly in the books William Caxton published that were relevant to childhood, I detect an increasing focus on the qualities of virtue and morality. This is distinct from codes of courteous and noble behaviour that had previously dominated narratives relevant to youthful socialisation. Mid-to late-fifteenth century literature increasingly drives readers towards understanding moral identity. I argue that this has to be viewed in a context of wider political disturbances and turmoil generated by the conflicts of the 'Wars of the Roses'. Religious change in the sixteenth century adds to this context. While escalating turbulence would have been felt most strongly in adult circles, I suggest how broader English society and contemporary literature responds to the same anxieties, traversing downwards to affect secondary social groups, including children. The importance of the late-fifteenth century as a time of social and political transformation serves as an introduction to my thesis as a whole, providing the scope to question long-term continuities, and to identify change in how childhood was perceived. The result is fresh understandings of childhood as a distinct phase of life, of literary transformations and continuities between manuscript and print, and how social and political networks affect change at a micro level in society. Show more