Children’s Literature of 1922: Historicity and Modernism in Margery Williams’ Velveteen Rabbit and Hugh Lofting’s The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Abstract

The year 1922 also known as Annus Mirabilis contributed significantly to literary modernism by instilling the traumatic memory of World War I and radical experimentations of modernism. The corpus of Children’s Literature is denied a space amongst the literary works which are deemed as ‘modern’. The main features of Literary modernism like individualism, alienation, symbolism, and experimentation are also reflected in the children’s literature of 1922. Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit represents a non-materialistic view of death and may be regarded as a coming-of-age/ bildungsroman for the toy kingdom. It also talks about selfhood, death, love, loss, technological progress, survival, and renewal. Likewise, Hugh Lofting’s Dolittle is one of the most radical characters in 20th-century literature. The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle comprises of themes like alienation, individualism, pro-animal rights, anti-war and colonialism. This work advocates for animal rights and critiques a culture that goes to war. The paper attempts to look at the Children’s book of 1922 from a modernist perspective by unravelling the modernist themes, symbolism, and experimentation employed in writing.