Includes bibliographical references (p. [338]-359) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: idiocy, culture and human relations -- 'Stripping our own hearts naked': William Wordsworth and John Wilson read 'The idiot boy' -- A 'pupil of innocent nature!' The wild boy of Aveyron goes to Paris -- Diminished men: masculinity and idiocy -- Essential women: feminity and idiocy -- Holy fools, witty fools, depraved fools: folly, innocence and sin -- History, society, economy: holy fools and idiots come home in nineteenth-century literature -- Barnaby Rudge, idiocy and paternalism: assisting the 'poor idiot' -- Innocence, philanthropy and economics: the new 'asylum' idiot -- Sensational idiocy -- 'The sins of the fathers': idiocy, evolution and degeneration -- Danger and degeneracy: the threat of the urban idiot -- The problem of the feeble-minded: the Royal Commission, eugenics and eternal chaos -- Epilogue.
Series:
Representations: health, disability, culture and society
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.