Socialists of the Future: Environmentalism and Childhood in Fin-de-siècle Socialist Literature

这个项目将考察十九世纪末二十世纪初英国社会主义文学中童年的表现如何反映和表达新出现的生态问题。这项研究将对最近维多利亚时代研究中的生态批评工作做出贡献，采用一种新的方法来研究关于儿童神话的既定学术，考察为成人撰写的关于儿童的社会主义文学，以及被忽视的针对儿童的社会主义文学，包括不太知名的社会学家H·G·威尔斯、E·内斯比特和乔治·伯纳德·肖的作品，以及未成年的社会主义作家的作品。我将调查儿童--包括儿童读者和虚构的儿童--在社会主义环境意识形态中所扮演的角色，关注牧业主义、乌托邦主义、环境守护和人类世等主题。除了阐明儿童史和环保主义历史中被忽视的研究领域外，该项目还旨在为当代儿童参与社会政治问题提供历史背景，例如Greta Thunberg在15岁时开始的“学校气候罢工”倡议，以及最近涌入的具有环境和政治意识的儿童出版物。

This project will examine how the representation of childhood in British socialist literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reflects and expresses emerging ecological concerns. This research will contribute to recent eco-critical work in Victorian studies by taking a new approach to established scholarship on the mythology of childhood, examining socialist literature written for adults about children and overlooked socialist literature for children, including lesser known works of well-known socialists, H. G. Wells, E. Nesbit and George Bernard Shaw, alongside that of minor socialist writers. I will investigate the role played by the child - both the child reader and the fictional child - in socialist environmental ideology, looking at themes such as pastoralism, utopianism, environmental guardianship and the Anthropocene. As well as illuminating neglected areas of study in the history of childhood and environmentalism, this project aims to provide historical context for the contemporary involvement of children in sociopolitical issues, such as Greta Thunberg's 'school climate strike' initiative, which she began at age fifteen, and by the recent influx of environmentally and politically conscious children's publishing.