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‘William’ and The Old Folks: Notes on Infantilisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Mike Hepworth
Mike Hepworth
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB9 2TY, U.K.
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Abstract

Critical concern with infantilisation practices—i.e. the tendency to treat older people as if they are dependent children—has for the most part concentrated on the negative associations between infantilisation and dependency in later life. Infantilisation is usually defined as an unwelcome imposition on older men and women who are often portrayed as relatively powerless to resist. Whilst the negative consequences of enforced infantilisation must not be ignored there are also occasions when infantilisation may be regarded as a voluntary or chosen mode of resistance on the part of older people to the decrements and external impositions of later life. The concept of infantilisation may therefore be enlarged to include modes of resistance involving processes of mutual identification of the old with the young; in certain instances even as a form of conspiracy between these two age groups against the wider society. This paper therefore pursues fictional images of such rapport as they occur in a selection of the ‘William’ stories written by Richmal Crompton during the period from 1919 up to her death in 1969, and with an appeal which continues up to the present day. The argument is that these stories of alliances between boyhood and ‘elders’ may be regarded as vivid examples (a repository of positive images) of what may be described as ‘positive infantilisation’: that is to say, of consciousness of the independence of subjective selfhood from the ageing body in the face of the misperceptions and misleading stereotypes of the ‘mature’ adult world.

Keywords

Infantilisationpositive ageingliterary gerontologyfictional images.
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , July 1996 , pp. 423 - 441
Copyright
Copyright Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 The author gratefully acknowledges permission from Macmillan Children's Books to reproduce passages from stories by Richmal Crompton (c Richmal C. Ashbee) and illustrations to these stories by Thomas Henry (c Thomas Henry Fisher Estate). Specific textual references are given in the notes below. The first publication dates of these stories are cited in the references below.

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6 Ibid. p. 177.

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9 Ibid. p. 39.

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17 The standard references on the life and work of Richmal Crompton are Mary Cadogan's biography (1986), Richmal Crompton: The Woman Behind William. Allen & Unwin, London, Boston, Sydney, Wellington,Google Scholar and her reference book (with Schutte, David) 1990. The William Companion, Allen & Unwin, London, Boston Sydney, Wellington.Google Scholar These works are indispensable for any student of ‘William’ and I am particularly indebted to Cadogan's description and discussion of three of the stories discussed in this paper: ‘The Cure’ (Great-aunt Jane), ‘Aunt Jane's Treat’ (Aunt Jane), and ‘The Circus’ (Grandfather Moore). These accounts are found respectively in pp. 140–142 and pp. 151–152 of her biography.

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19 Ibid. p. 118.

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21 Crompton, R. 1984. (first published 1925). William and Uncle George, in Still William. Macmillan Children's Books, London.Google Scholar

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23 Crompton, R. 1984. (first published 1930). William Goes Shopping, in William's Happy Days. Macmillan, Children's Books, London.Google Scholar

24 Ibid. pp. 7–8.

25 Ibid. pp. 9–10.

26 Ibid. p. 12.

27 Hepworth, M. 1991. Positive ageing and the mask of age. Journal of Educational Gerontology, 6, 93–101.Google Scholar

28 Crompton, R. 1983. (first published 1923). The Cure, in William Again. Macmillan Children's Books, London.Google Scholar

29 Ibid. p. 29.

30 Ibid. pp. 31–33.

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32 Ibid. p. 65.

33 Ibid. p. 66.

34 Ibid. p. 68.

35 Ibid. p. 78.

36 Ibid. p. 68.

37 Ibid. p. 76.

38 Crompton, R. 1983. (first published 1923). The Circus, in William Again. Macmillan Children's Books, London, pp. 176–177.Google Scholar

39 Ibid. p. 184.

40 Ibid. p. 185.

41 Crompton, R. 1992. (first published 1964). Violet Elizabeth's Party, in William and The Witch. Macmillan Children's Book, London.Google Scholar

42 Ibid. p. 50.

43 Ibid. pp. 50–51.

44 Ibid. p. 59.