Seminar "The Child"

The seminar will be held on November 8, 2016 in the room 355.

 

Though the concept of the child may appear quite clear from the biological perspective of human development, its cultural definitions and uses vary considerably depending on numerous aspects. Even biological definitions, however, are culturally negotiable as, for instance, the legal age of majority is usually defined as 18 but sometimes it is 21; childhood may be separated from infancy or, contrarily, include the foetus stage. The child is understood differently in various epochs and in various areas such as the law, pedagogy, paediatrics, psychology, linguistics, marketing, fashions, literature, or film. The child appears in different roles in the context of school, family, playground and the social world at large. The child’s relation to Nature (itself a cultural concept) is also tellingly changeable, as is also the notion of the child’s innocence. Moreover, the rights and duties of children are variously defined, as well as cultural areas in which children are able (or not able) to participate, such as politics, war, or sex. While in many historical periods children were largely ignored, nowadays their importance seems obvious: not only is childhood recognised as a crucial formative period, but many institutions cater to children’s needs. In literature, film or pictorial arts the figure of the child may testify to various concerns of the cultural period or area; the child may also become a metaphorical sign expressing psychological, philosophical, theological or metafictional  meanings.

As the concept of the child exceeds the borderlines of any single discipline, papers from different research areas are invited. The papers may range from 15 to 5 min. presentations and may refer to finished projects, work in progress, as well as to possible areas of interest.

Please, send your proposals (including the paper title and the time you need for the presentation) to my email address: angjw@ug.edu.pl by November 5.

Doctoral students and MA students are also cordially invited.

The papers may become a part of the publication planned by the Children’s and Fantastic Literature Research Group for 2017.