Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction

This edited collection contends that the figure of the child is foundational to the workings of biopolitical power yet remains undertheorized. The study of nineteenth-century biopolitics offers a theoretical framework that promises to increase our understanding of how modern democracies manage their...

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Main Author: Hodgson, Lucia
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis 2025
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Online Access:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/100882
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author Hodgson, Lucia
author_browse Hodgson, Lucia
author_facet Hodgson, Lucia
author_sort Hodgson, Lucia
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This edited collection contends that the figure of the child is foundational to the workings of biopolitical power yet remains undertheorized. The study of nineteenth-century biopolitics offers a theoretical framework that promises to increase our understanding of how modern democracies manage their subjects. Recent scholarship has invigorated interrogations into forms of state governance that operate at the level of population, a biological phenomenon defined as a group of individuals linked by racialized fictions of biological commonality. This collection seeks to recognize and position critical childhood studies as essential to these interrogations. The essays theorize the role of representations of children and childhood as tools of biopolitical governance in America in the long nineteenth century. They variously explore how the interrelated and overlapping qualities integral to our understandings of the child and childhood are readily deployed by biopolitical power. The collection is organized into three sections that illustrate how these qualities enable the sorting of human beings into populations targeted for reform, exploitation, and disposal.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1585322025-06-24T07:10:01Z Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction Hodgson, Lucia Children's Literature thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSY Children’s and teenage literature studies: general This edited collection contends that the figure of the child is foundational to the workings of biopolitical power yet remains undertheorized. The study of nineteenth-century biopolitics offers a theoretical framework that promises to increase our understanding of how modern democracies manage their subjects. Recent scholarship has invigorated interrogations into forms of state governance that operate at the level of population, a biological phenomenon defined as a group of individuals linked by racialized fictions of biological commonality. This collection seeks to recognize and position critical childhood studies as essential to these interrogations. The essays theorize the role of representations of children and childhood as tools of biopolitical governance in America in the long nineteenth century. They variously explore how the interrelated and overlapping qualities integral to our understandings of the child and childhood are readily deployed by biopolitical power. The collection is organized into three sections that illustrate how these qualities enable the sorting of human beings into populations targeted for reform, exploitation, and disposal. 2025-04-17T04:16:00Z 2025-04-17T04:16:00Z 2025-04-16T12:33:50Z 2025 chapter https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/100882 9781032563527 9781032563541 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/158532 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/100882/1/9781003435068_10.4324_9781003435068-5.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/100882/1/9781003435068_10.4324_9781003435068-5.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge 10.4324/9781003435068-5 10.4324/9781003435068-5 fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 The Biopolitics of Childhood in the Long American 19th Century 9781032563527 9781032563541 Routledge 20 open access
spellingShingle Children's Literature
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSY Children’s and teenage literature studies: general
Hodgson, Lucia
Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction
title Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction
title_full Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction
title_fullStr Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction
title_short Chapter 3 The Biopolitics of Sexual Consent in Lydia Maria Child’s Reform Fiction
title_sort chapter 3 the biopolitics of sexual consent in lydia maria child s reform fiction
topic Children's Literature
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSY Children’s and teenage literature studies: general
topic_facet Children's Literature
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSY Children’s and teenage literature studies: general
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/100882
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