Adultification in children's literature: an analysis of A Little Princess (1905), by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Abstract

The way the concept of childhood is understood nowadays is quite recent, considering human history. And the consequences of this perception induce a change in the understanding of the circumstances that children were subjected to. Before, these circumstances were naturalized, but today they are seen as harmful, which leads to the ‘adultification’ concept. Bearing this social issue in mind, the present article analyzes Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, A Little Princess (1905), in order to understand how the author portrayed ‘adultification’ in a Children’s Literature book and how to look into it in a critical way. Using the close reading method in a textual analysis of the novel and its excerpts as discussed by Belsey (2013) and Kusch (2016), the selected excerpts were chosen based on the concept of adultification as perceived by Davis (2020) and others and the language used. Whereas the book seems to encompass different characteristics of Children's Literature, the analysis of the story and the language also showed that different meanings and depth depend on the reader.