1. Objectifs

Intentions :
To revisit the myth of the neglected and abuse stepchildren through a historical point of view. The analysis is made between the years 1866-1920.

Questions/Hypothèses :
« Historic stepfamilies and historic stepchildren were normative and marginal at the same time. » (p. 141)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« Novels, folk tales, legal records, and first-person accounts all have their own light to shed on the question posed at the outset of this chapter. » (p. 161)

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

« Whit its specific attention to stepchildren, this essay tightens the focus and allows us to examine a wide range of issues through the eyes of one of the players in this drama, the one most likely to be marginalized and constructed as a victim. The text is divided in three parts […]. I look in turn at various representation of stepchildren in popular culture, at the legal status of stepchildren under Quebec’ 1866 Civil Code, and at the ways in which a handful of stepchildren recorded their childhood experiences, sometimes in youthful diaries but most often retrospectively in published memoirs and autobiographies. » (p. 143) The author found out that even though it is not the same for all the stepchildren, many of them « found the generosity and other resources they needed to successfully navigate de tricky path out of the margins into a blended nuclear family ». (p. 161)