The Adulterated Children of Child Soldier Narratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9250362 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Mastey (0000-0003-0696-5850, corresponding author), David Mastey David Mastey |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 39 |
| Publication date | 2017-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in African Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/reseafrilite.48.4.04 |
| OpenAlex | W2796371391 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 14 |
In this article I examine how child soldier narratives address the concept of childhood as it relates to their young protagonists. I begin with a brief examination of the most prominent characteristics that define childhood in North America, the primary target market for these works. I draw on these concepts in my analysis of how the characters mature in their respective texts. The genre presents an alternative (though not preferable) model for childhood development: chronological age is diminished by military rank, the binary opposition between soldiers and civilians replaces graduated social distinctions between adults and children, and war disrupts the ostensibly natural developmental processes. Moreover, the genre suggests that rehabilitation is only possible through relocation to the West. I conclude that although the genre does offer portrayals of more normative childhoods in Africa, these alternative examples are obscured by the sensational depiction of the lost childhoods of child soldier characters
Art · Binary opposition · Childhood studies · Depiction · Developmental psychology · Early childhood · Literature · Narrative · Normative · Opposition (politics) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis
Wars as Postcolonial African Illness in Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation
Child Soldier Narratives and the Underrepresentation of Females in Fighting Forces
Gender, Trauma and Power in China Keitetsi’s La petite fille à la Kalachnikov
Precarity, Protectedness and Power in Emmanuel Jal's WARchild
The liminality of the child soldier, memoir and memory in Emmanuel Jal’s War Child
Later Life
The Postcolonial Exotic
Human Development in Cultural Context
Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace
The Timing of Normal Puberty and the Age Limits of Sexual Precocity
Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood
Child Soldier Stories and their Fictions
The Essential Piaget
The Child Soldier Narrative and the Problem of Arrested Historicization
Coming of Age with an AK-47
Children and Globalization
The production of space
Human Rights, Child-Soldier Narratives, and the Problem of Form
Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law, and the Globalization of Childhood
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,83 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |