童年論述經典研讀會 （二）童年的概念
Two Concepts of Childhood: From Coddling to
ensuring disciplined, rational manners
研讀時間：2008/10/27;
地點：台大校史館會議室
主讀人：劉鳳芯
Chapter IV: A Modest Contribution to the History of Games and Pastimes
●the childhood of Louis XIII (1601-1643), recorded by the doctor Heroard
Louis
XIII was king of
-played violin, perched in a little high-chair, music, dancing,
※infant prodigies (p. 63)
-often received whippings,
-liked the company of soldiers; played with a little cannon
-at age 2.9: put to bed for the first time
-also around that time, he already knew the rudiments of his religion
le bon Dieu (means “kind God”) (from a language of children à that of adults) (p.63)
-the
-at age 3.5: he was being taught to read
-at age 4: he was given writing lessons (first by a clerk of the palace chapel àa
professional scribe (at age 6))
-he was told fairy-tales
-at age 4-5:
he was playing either with pages or soldiers (p. 65 middle)
he played various games
mixed with adults and took part in their amusements
(see Bretons wresting, bullfights and bearfights, badger race, farce
and took part in court ballets, court dances, folkdances
-at
age 7: the
entrusted to men
give up the games of infancy, particularly stop playing the dolls
played games of chance (p. 66)
#In the early 17th C., there was
not such a strict division between children’s games and adult games.
p. 68
●Toys that connect children and adult worlds
- some toys originated in the spirit of emulation
e.g. hobby-horse, the little sails spinning round on the end of a stick
- the communal religious ceremony (children take part in their allotted place)
e.g. the bird on a leash
p. 69
-the ambiguity of the doll and the miniature toys (the replicas of adult belongings)
bibeloterie (knick-knackery)
puppet-show (p. 70)※
fashion doll (p. 70)
-Childhood was becoming the repository of customs abandoned by the adults (p. 71)
-In 1600, the specialization of games and pastimes did not extend beyond infancy (the age of 3 or 4). From then on, children played the same games as the adults, either with other children or with adults. (p. 71)
play card games, games of chance
● Children in Seasonal Festivities (p. 72)
In the society of old, games and amusements ＞ work
Children take an active part in the traditional ceremonies
The Twelfth Night
Christmas Eve
the Holy Innocents
Shrove Tuesday
May Day
the house-to-house collection (p. 77, token p. 78)
crowning the children with flowers (meaning 78 top)
All Souls’ Day
Martinmas
● Children in other circumstances (p. 79)
family gatherings
paintings depict children holding some musical instrument (p. 80)
dancing
the evolution of dancing (p. 80 bottom)
drama
● The traditional moral attitude towards these popular games and pastimes
- the majority: moral indifferent; the prudish elite: intolerant (p. 81-82)
- the high regard of the games of chance in the 17th century (p. 82)
gambling (83)
→the game of chance is not simply a pastime but a profession, a means of making
one’s fortune and extending one’s acquaintance (83 down)
→art depicting children playing cards, dice, backgammon, etc. (84)
→colleges allow students playing for money (84)
→the evolution of games of chance (84 bottom)
- the evolution of dancing (85)
-
the attitude of the
E.g.
at
- in
the 17th C., outright condemnation was modified, owing to the Jesuit
college (88 bottom)
assimilate the games and introduce them officially into curricula and regulations
the need for physical exercise
- 18th C. doctors: elaborated a bodily hygiene: physical culture
the action of lungs (89 bottom)
- at the closing of the 18th C.: games found another justification:
a link was established between the humanist pedagogues, the doctors of the
enlightenment, the first nationalists (patriotism, soldiers)
● Games also underwent a parallel evolution of games that were divided up according to age and rank
- some would become children’s games, while others would retain the ambiguous and far from innocent character (91 top)
moralists
-
in the
first half of the 17th C. (according to
|
-games of wit and conversation -appeal only to persons of quality… blurry |
|
|
games of exercise games of chance |
-common to every sort of person (from valets to masters) -easy for the vulgar, the ignorant and the clever and the learned |
-
in the
17th C. a distinction was made between the games of adults and noblemen
and the games of children and yokels.
But this can be traced back to the 12th C. (see 92 bottom -93
top)
●
The
evolution in which the games of old gradually transferred into the repository
of childish and popular games (94)
-
hoop (by
the end of the 17th C., the hoop had been left to children)
-
fairy-stories
˙in
the second half of the 17th C.: a new interest in making a
fashionable literary
genre out of oral recitations of a naïve, traditional
character; e.g. Perrault’s stories (95)
˙at
the end of the 17th C., the story was becoming a new form of serious
written
lit.,
but the oral recitation of stories was being abandoned (96)
˙in
the 18th C.: Bibiothèque Bleue (the
blue tales) for the rural public (97)
˙story-tellers
and charlatan (97)
˙the
evolution of the old stories (98 top)
-
tennis
-
ball game
-
mall
-
fancy dress
(disguise, masks)
today, children are the only ones
who put on masks at carnival time and dress up for fun
#the same evolution takes place with repetitions monotony: (99 bottom)
implies the connection between the idea of childhood and the idea of class.
e. g. games were first abandoned by the adults of the upper classes à
lower classes and children of the upper classes
slight variation in
Chapter V From Immodesty to Innocence
●
the lack of
reserve with regard to children during Louis XIII’s
times
-When
Louis XIII reached the age of 10, he was forced to behave with a modesty (102)
education
-Ariès
believes that the moral climate was the same in families of nobles and
commoners (103)
-from the 15th C., the festivals of
childhood:
the child urinating
the child being breast-fed
the Circumcision
-
two
reasons:
˙children under the age of puberty were believed to be unaware of
or indifferent to sex
˙the idea that references to sexual matters
could soil childish innocence did not yet existed (106)
●
The current
idea of innocence
-can
be traced back to the 15th C.
Gerson’s regulation (106-8)
-toward the end of the 16th C.
providing expurgated editions of the classics for the use of
children (important) (109)
-the 17th C.: a great change in manners took place
an essential concept of the innocence of childhood
had won acceptance
E.g.
(literatures)
˙the
innocence of childhood can be found in Montaigne
(1533-1592) (p. 110)
˙treatises
on etiquette (111)
˙books
on good manners
˙the
comparison of angels with children
the illustrious nature of childhood (M. de Grenaille)
˙Christ’s
childhood
˙the
Holy Innocents
˙the
child martyrs
the weakness of childhood. E. g. a few principles:
#1
children must never be left alone
#2
children must not
be pampered and must be accustomed to strict discipline early in life
#3
modesty and decency
X
sleeping several to a bed
reading and conversation: purity of language, wholesome
subject-matter (116)
only educational games are permitted
#4
great moderation of manners and language, even in everyday life (117 bottom)
-
the idea of childish innocence
resulted in two kinds of attitude and behaviour
towards childhood
1.
safeguarding it against pollution by life, and
particularly by the sexuality (119)
2.
strengthening it by developing character and reason
contradiction (119 top)
●
New
tendency in religious devotion and iconography
(corresponding to the evolution of the idea of childhood in
the 17th C.)
-the
Infant Jesus by himself
-the
Holy Childhood (121)
-the
guardian angel (123-4)
-the
soul-child (124 middle)
-the
child paragon
-the
edification accounts of the childhood years of full-grown saints (125)
-The
First Communion ceremony (127)
Conclusion: The
Two Concepts of Childhood
●
coddling
(129)
made its appearance in the family circle
women
● ensuring disciplined, rational
manners
made its appearance outside the family: churchmen,
moralists, and pedagogues
17th
C.: the dislike feeling for
coddling felt by moralists and pedagogues (131)
their fondness for childhood: psychological interest and
moral solicitude
18th C. hygiene and physical health (133)