Infant Tongues

This scholarly collection brings together twenty critical essays examining how children's voices have been represented in literature from the Renaissance forward. The contributors explore complex issues including the imitation of child speech and dialect, the use of narrative voice, and the creative development of young writers themselves. These academic investigations illustrate the various ways adult authors have mediated, modified, or appropriated children's perspectives across literary history, tracing shifting cultural conceptions of childhood through textual analysis.

While the subject of children in literature holds inherent interest, this volume's dense academic prose and theoretical frameworks place it firmly within graduate-level literary criticism. Parents and general readers seeking engaging stories for young children will find this analysis of narrative voice and cultural mediation far removed from bedtime reading. The book serves as a specialized resource for scholars studying childhood representation rather than a practical guide for early literacy development.