Children and Literature

The paper draws on a range of fictional and autobiographical accounts of childhood to illustrate different aspects of children's perceptions and responses and to show how they can enhance the adult's ability to understand what a child is experiencing. Three themes, concerning children's perceptions and suggestibility, their sense of helplessness and difficulty in communicating with adults, and their responses to loss and change are illustrated through the work of nineteenth- and twentieth-century creative writers. It is argued that literary accounts can work at a conscious and unconscious level in heightening our understanding, and may also give us a perspective on how childhood experiences influence the adult personality.