Death of the Fairy: Children’s Science Writing and the Reinvention of Fairyland in Nineteenth Century Britain
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34640/univmadeiracjhs1lago
Keywords:
History of Science, Fairies, Children’s Literature, Nineteenth Century, BritainAbstract
In this article, I examine how the nineteenth-century British writers’ insertion of fairies into children’s science writing as a narrative device promoted Britain as a nation that had progressed past the age of superstition. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, science writers like Buckley framed their narrative through a folkloric lens rather than adopted a scientific lens through which to frame a folklore narrative. Through an analysis of children’s science writing and connected texts, this article reveals the way in which the insertion of fairies and other folklore figures into educational works as a narrative device implicitly, or explicitly, promoted the image of Britain as a nation that had progressed past the age of superstition.
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