Sexual knowledge and children's literature: William Blake's songs of innocence and of experience and Jamila Gavin's Coram boy

Abstract

Today's educator is in the difficult position of deciding what to teach adolescents; indeed, is sometimes essentially silenced by proscription of the topic. William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Jamila Gavin's Coram Boy might help a teacher approach the topic of sexuality. William Blake's Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) must be understood in the light of the then newly emerging genre of children's literature. Yet the subject matter, sexuality, drinking, child labour and poverty, might be thought sometimes to be inappropriate for children. His poems and images are often drawn from other contexts and often have an ironic meaning. In particular, the Calvinist children's teachings of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley forged strong reactions in Blake. The Charity School Movement and the establishment of charitable institutions like orphanages assumed an authoritarian stance over poor children. Blake challenges the assumptions of his culture through his poems. Jamila Gavin's adolescent novel Coram Boy won the Whitbread prize in 2000. The plot centres around one charity that also figures in Blake's Songs: the London Foundling Hospital (founded by Thomas Coram). Teenage premarital sex, illegitimate birth, violence and poverty are also featured. Gavin's novel comments on the staid atmosphere surrounding discussion of teenage sexuality in our, supposedly, sexually liberated society. Coram Boy and Songs reflect on each other in interesting ways, and a consideration of their themes is instructive in finding a way to teach both in the literature classroom.