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In one of the first studies of its kind, Orphan texts seeks to insert the orphan, and the problems its existence poses, in the larger critical areas of the family and childhood in Victorian culture. In doing so, Laura Peters considers certain canonical texts alongside lesser known works from popular culture in order to establish the context in which discourses of orphanhood operated.The study argues that the prevalence of the orphan figure can be explained by considering the family. The family and all it came to represent - legitimacy, race and national belonging - was in crisis. In order to reaffirm itself the family needed a scapegoat: it found one in the orphan figure. As one who embodied the loss of the family, the orphan figure came to represent a dangerous threat to the family; and the family reaffirmed itself through the expulsion of this threatening difference. Orphan texts will be of interest to final year undergraduates, postgraduates, academics and those interested in the areas of Victorian literature, Victorian studies, postcolonial studies, history and popular culture.

Orphans in literature. --- English literature. --- LITERARY CRITICISM --- Social & Cultural History. --- English literature --- British literature --- Inklings (Group of writers) --- Nonsense Club (Group of writers) --- Order of the Fancy (Group of writers) --- European --- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. --- History and criticism. --- Literature --- Literary Studies: C 1800 To C 1900 --- LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh --- Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 --- Bermuda. --- Canada. --- Charles Dickens. --- George Eliot. --- New South Wales. --- Rose Macaulay. --- The Mystery of Edwin Drood. --- Victorian culture. --- Wuthering Heights. --- criminal orphan. --- foreigner. --- orphan texts. --- policing empire. --- post-colonial studies.