Write an abstract in about 1000 words in polished academic language and style Using Complex vocabulary and sentence structures, including varied punctuation and transition words and Tone must be in active voice (present), informative and authoritative and writing style is coherent, consistent, and organized and the sentences are logically structured to create a clear and progressive flow of ideas
In reality, it wasn’t until the twentieth century that authors began to make “representational attempts to capture the intrinsic qualities of a child, its point of view, its voice, its language, and its rhythms.” (Approaching childhood in contemporary Britain Sandra Dinter). The shift in perception towards children is largely accredited to the literary figures of the Romantic epoch, who venerated children and viewed them as a vehicle for expressing their discontent with the existing society. Victor Hugo’s bold claim that “Christopher Columbus only discovered America, I discovered the child!” (A history of childhood: children and childhood in the west from…Colin Heywood. Cite 32) reflects the paradigm shift in which childhood was idealized as a sacred state blessed by the Divine and an eternal source of inspiration. (A history of childhood: children and childhood in the west from…Colin Heywood). The Romantic writers were fascinated with the concept of the ‘noble savage,’ a figure uncorrupted by societal constraints and possessing an innate, untainted morality. This idea, popularized by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, saw childhood as a time of unspoiled innocence and imagination and posited that the child’s unblemished nature provided a window into the essence of humanity. Consequently, the Romantics’ infatuation with childlike language and perspective inspired them to integrate child narrators and their purity into their literary oeuvre. For instance, Wordsworth and Blake, among others, “used childhood as a critical criterion from which the fallen state of modern society could be measured and condemned- and as a divine resource through which it could possibly be redeemed.” (Critical children: the use of childhood in ten great novels. P 9) Moreover, the child narrator’s presence in Romantic literature served as a critique of the prevailing rationalism and empiricism that dominated the Enlightenment era. By privileging the child’s intuitive and imaginative capacities, Romantic authors sought to challenge the notion that reason and logic were the sole arbiters of truth. In doing so, they emphasized the importance of the individual’s subjective experience and the transformative power of the imagination. 
The child embodies an unspoiled and prelapsarian state that represents the harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world, a connection that often succumbs to the artificial constructs of society. As Wordsworth famously proclaimed, “the child is the father of the man,” (‘My heart leaps up when I behold’ [1807], line 7) underscoring the notion that childhood not only serves as a blueprint for adulthood, but it is through the lens of the child that we can glimpse the essence of human existence. Adrienne E. Gavin argues that Romantic poetry inaugurated a novel construction of childhood as a “desirable” and “distinct” state from adulthood, an “idealized, clear- visioned, divinely pure, intuitive, and imaginative stage of life” that adults yearned for but had lost, and which they sought to recapture in literature. p. 7-8) Thus, the Romantic writers, through their depiction of children as “creatures of deeper wisdom, finer aesthetic sensitivity, and a more profound awareness of enduring moral truths” (history of childhood, Colin wood cite 28) elevated the status of children and instilled a new reverence for childhood in the collective consciousness. Through their intricate use of language and exploration of themes surrounding childhood innocence, these writers helped establish the child as a worthy subject for literary and artistic expression. As a result, they laid the foundation for future generations of authors to delve deeper into the complex and multi-dimensional world of the child’s experience, which ultimately flourished in the literary works of the Victorian era