The Role Of Imagination In Children’s Upbringing And Education In Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854)

Abstract

Abstract Algiers 2 University ,Algeria sara.amari@gmail.com This article investigates the role of imagination in children‟s upbringing and education in Charles Dickens‟s novel Hard Times. It has adopted Vygotsky‟s Creative Imagination and Socio-Cultural theories with the aim of examining the influence of the parents, teachers and culture in cultivating and developing children‟s imaginative functions in their upbringing and education. It explores the function of imagination in the psychological and cognitive processes of children's development from their childhood to adulthood. Furthermore, it links the gothic elements like the images of “haunt and uncanny” with the alienated imagination in children to highlight the danger of extreme scientific, rational, Utilitarian upbringing and education on the human nature and imaginative functions of children . Through the use of Charles Dickens's novel, Hard Times, as a case study , this article aims at showing that the lack of both parents and teachers‟ support of the children‟s imagination in the form of communication, provision and understanding of cultural tools affects negatively children's imaginative play and creative reworking of concrete objects in the world; while parents‟ support successfully internalizes, mediates and develops children's imagination as a higher mental function to make a conscious understanding of the world.