Les petits enfants du siècle duly arrived and I've been spending the last few days doing a summary of it. I studied it with a couple of classes but had forgotten that it is actually quite a hard book due to the high level of slang. I shall be doing the vocabulary for it which will be a mammoth task. The voice of the author coming in through the mouth of Josyane is very strong with lots of strong adult irony.
The native French birth rate was quite weak for most of the 20th century with all kind of financial inducements to have more and the book I suppose makes the point that by having loads of kids you can't look after is not an unalloyed advantage. Jo aludes to many of these children ending up as cannon fodder but of course we see in the book that with the level of care many are simply ending up as a burden on the state being carted off to the Arriérés or various other institutions.
The emotional deprivation caused by cynical parents having children simply to add to their list of material goods is one of the main threads of the book and Jo's thirst for attention is satisfied by Nicolas her younger brother and Guido the romantic Italian with his inappropriate but welcomed advances. Guido clearly feels guilty about his desire for Jo and it is probably no accident that he disappears off the scene. We are left to make up our own minds about the effects of parental neglect on a young and vulnerable child.
The perspectives of the increasingly quick urbanisation is cleverly done and we see childrens' natural playground being replaced by trees behind metal rails predating the huge shift in what we consider childhood to be about. There will be lots of A level french resources on the history of the suburbs for use with the AQA syllabus and to back up the content of the A2 topics. Hopefully by the time I've finished these will all fit cunningly together!
The native French birth rate was quite weak for most of the 20th century with all kind of financial inducements to have more and the book I suppose makes the point that by having loads of kids you can't look after is not an unalloyed advantage. Jo aludes to many of these children ending up as cannon fodder but of course we see in the book that with the level of care many are simply ending up as a burden on the state being carted off to the Arriérés or various other institutions.
The emotional deprivation caused by cynical parents having children simply to add to their list of material goods is one of the main threads of the book and Jo's thirst for attention is satisfied by Nicolas her younger brother and Guido the romantic Italian with his inappropriate but welcomed advances. Guido clearly feels guilty about his desire for Jo and it is probably no accident that he disappears off the scene. We are left to make up our own minds about the effects of parental neglect on a young and vulnerable child.
The perspectives of the increasingly quick urbanisation is cleverly done and we see childrens' natural playground being replaced by trees behind metal rails predating the huge shift in what we consider childhood to be about. There will be lots of A level french resources on the history of the suburbs for use with the AQA syllabus and to back up the content of the A2 topics. Hopefully by the time I've finished these will all fit cunningly together!
have you got any information on the novel Les petits enfants du siècle as yet. If you do please let me know, I have to study it next semester and I would really like to know a little about the book.
ReplyDeletei need an english translation for the whole book, i'm not great at french.
ReplyDeleteI think the book is an intresting one, I believe there should be a translation and more information on the book
ReplyDelete