In this paper. I will consider how J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan illustrates how emerging theories concerning child development in the 20th century particularly those of American psychologist G. Stanley Hall were reinforced or embodied in children’s literature. I will expand upon Sally Shuttleworth’s argument that psychiatric writings on childhood emerged in tandem with the novels of childhood during the Victorian era. Rather than argue for the impact of the novel on child psychology, I will consider the impact child psychology had on the novel during the early 20th century in the case of Peter Pan. First, I will briefly sketch the history of neurasthenia and G. Stanley Hall’s proposed treatment for the illness. Second, I will identify Hall’s list of symptoms of neurasthenia in the figures of Barrie’s novel, Peter Pan. Third, I will explore how the child-body in the characters of Peter Pan and its attributes such as primitiveness, savagery and innocence implicate Hall’s remedy for neurasthenia. I consider Peter Pan as an example of the role childhood and the child-body had in the interface between child medicine and children’s literature. I suggest that the child-body of Peter Pan embodies emerging theories of child psychology and illustrates a more intimate link between medicine and literature during the early 20th century.
About the presenterElisabeth M. Yang
Yang is pursuing her PhD in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University. Holds an MA in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine (Durham University) and an MA in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics (Biola University). Research Interests: history/philosophy of child development, history of science, early modern period, bioethics, Thomism and personalist philosophies, Polanyi, Pascal, Wojtyla.
She holds a CELTA certificate from Cambridge Univ. Taught in New York, Los Angeles, China, Korea.