Entertaining Children ― The Participation of Youth in the Entertainment Industry

Children have been exploited as performers and wooed energetically as consumers throughout history. These thrusts have brought managers and parents into conflict with legislators who have attempted to control such exploitation, often the result of preconceived ideas about the role of children and childhood in their cultural contexts. Entertaining Children offers scholarly investigations into the employment and participation of children in the entertainment industry with examples drawn from historical and contemporary contexts. In addition to British and North American perspectives, the contributors encompass practices in Australasia, Italy, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and mainland China, spanning from the eighteenth century to the interwar years and contemporary twenty-first century practices.

Gillian Arrighi is Senior Lecturer in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research on circus and on young people in the entertainment industry has been published widely in international journals and in edited collections. She is Associate Editor of the e-journal, Popular Entertainment Studies.

Victor Emeljanow is Emeritus Professor in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and General Editor of the e-journal Popular Entertainment Studies. He has published widely on subjects ranging from the reception of Chekhov in Britain and the career of Theodore Kommisarjevsky to Victorian popular dramatists. He co-wrote the award-winning Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing 1840–1880 (2001, with Jim Davis) and Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the series "Lives of Shakespearian Actors" (2012).