Iqbal et les autres. La représentation en littérature des enfants travailleurs

Abstract

The issue of child labor began to be taken into consideration in Europe in the 19th century. The massive influx of people from the countryside to industrialized cities created a new social class, the sub-proletariat. Among them were large numbers of children, working to survive. Art and literature seized on the theme of poor working children in order to bring out the hidden face of progress (Hugo, Malot, Dickens, Trollope, Andersen…). From the 20th century onwards, this theme became commonplace in children’s literature, and major works often feature in school curricula. The aim was to promote children’s education as a way out of poverty (Aymé, Baffert, Ben Jelloun...). On the other hand, in the 2000s, a documentary literature developed on the subject, based on situations of misery in the contemporary world and illustrating the inequalities between the countries of the North and those of the South (Hélary, Poix).