A British Childhood? Some Historical Reflections on Continuities and Discontinuities in the Culture of Anglophone Childhood

Abstract

This special edition of Genealogy will consider the history of childhood through a focus upon continuities and discontinuities in British and affiliated Anglophone cultures. It will begin with Not Just ‘Once’ upon a Time by Pam Jarvis, a reflection upon the changing nature of Western childhood, focusing upon traces that previous generations have left in ‘folk’ and 'fairy' tales and rhymes. Such tales, and their underpinning narratives were further disseminated across the world via British colonial culture, and currently play a large role in contemporary US multimedia products; the implications of this process are considered. The role of psychobiological and evolutionary factors in human storytelling provides an underpinning theoretical basis for this article.