Undermining Body and Mind? The Impact of the Underground 189
shown, these underground narratives constitute projections into the future, but the result of subterranean existence is frequently a movement
backwards rather than forwards, and indeed life below ground can itself be seen as a return to a primitive condition given that
“[h]umanity’s earliest constructions were burrows rather than buildings”.
7 In literary works, H. G. Wells’s Morlocks are perhaps the best
example of the underground’s generation of regression rather than
progression when adopted as permanent dwelling place, while Zola’s
Germinal offers a similar portrayal of the effects of a subterranean
working environment.
According to theories of recapitulation which became popular
in the late nineteenth century, children were themselves situated at the
foot of the evolutionary ladder with a journey up to the summit of
fully-formed adulthood before them.
8 Given that one of the traditional
functions of children’s literature is that of socialization, of assisting
the process of transition from childhood to adulthood, the way in
which texts for young readers present the impact of the underground
environment therefore merits examination. In works for young readers
specifically, to what extent does going down below for these substantial periods of time also entail going back – in a physical, moral, evolutionary sense – or is a more positive, progressive vision apparent?
This question will be explored with reference to English and French
texts by Jules Verne, George MacDonald, Hector Malot, R. M. Ballantyne and Mme de Gériolles dating principally from the 1870s
which, in all but one case, take coal mines as their underground locales. Having examined texts which present the underground principally as dwelling place, the focus will then move to those in which the
underground constitutes a place of work.
George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin (1872), relates the
story of Princess Irene, her relationship with her magical grandmother
and with the young miner, Curdie, who uncovers and is eventually instrumental in foiling a goblin plot to abduct the heroine. There are
___________________________
John F. Sears, Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), p. 37.
7 Williams, Notes on the Underground, pp. 16, 90.
8 Julia Briggs, “Transitions: 1890-1914”, in Children’s Literature: An Illustrated History, ed. by Peter Hunt (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 16791 (p. 169).
shown, these underground narratives constitute projections into the future, but the result of subterranean existence is frequently a movement
backwards rather than forwards, and indeed life below ground can itself be seen as a return to a primitive condition given that
“[h]umanity’s earliest constructions were burrows rather than buildings”.
7 In literary works, H. G. Wells’s Morlocks are perhaps the best
example of the underground’s generation of regression rather than
progression when adopted as permanent dwelling place, while Zola’s
Germinal offers a similar portrayal of the effects of a subterranean
working environment.
According to theories of recapitulation which became popular
in the late nineteenth century, children were themselves situated at the
foot of the evolutionary ladder with a journey up to the summit of
fully-formed adulthood before them.
8 Given that one of the traditional
functions of children’s literature is that of socialization, of assisting
the process of transition from childhood to adulthood, the way in
which texts for young readers present the impact of the underground
environment therefore merits examination. In works for young readers
specifically, to what extent does going down below for these substantial periods of time also entail going back – in a physical, moral, evolutionary sense – or is a more positive, progressive vision apparent?
This question will be explored with reference to English and French
texts by Jules Verne, George MacDonald, Hector Malot, R. M. Ballantyne and Mme de Gériolles dating principally from the 1870s
which, in all but one case, take coal mines as their underground locales. Having examined texts which present the underground principally as dwelling place, the focus will then move to those in which the
underground constitutes a place of work.
George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin (1872), relates the
story of Princess Irene, her relationship with her magical grandmother
and with the young miner, Curdie, who uncovers and is eventually instrumental in foiling a goblin plot to abduct the heroine. There are
___________________________
John F. Sears, Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), p. 37.
7 Williams, Notes on the Underground, pp. 16, 90.
8 Julia Briggs, “Transitions: 1890-1914”, in Children’s Literature: An Illustrated History, ed. by Peter Hunt (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 16791 (p. 169).