The discursive construal of "childhood" in the English-speaking culture
The paper traces evolution of the English-speaking discourses of childhood and growing up. The research focuses on the perception of childhood at different stages in the development of the English-speaking culture. The main research goal is to analyze the dynamic changes in the interpretation of childhood and to reveal the main factors that shape the contemporary discursive space of childhood. The research was carried out on the basis of the TIME Magazine Corpus and relies on the methods of discourse and corpus analysis. The paper describes the emergence of childhood as a notion, reveals the cultural and historical dynamics in the perception and interpretation of childhood, analyzes the structure of the contemporary discursive space of childhood and highlights the role of discourse practices in forming the axiology of childhood and normative behavioral patterns regarding children.