Shifting boundaries : objects, narratives and nonhuman entities as a means towards agency in narratives on child abuse and neglect

Abstract

This chapter explores how narratives of child abuse and neglect in literature engage with the concept of child agency. Brockdorff and Dautel argue that family ecologies, objects, and nonhuman entities play a crucial role in empowering or disempowering children as active citizens. Through close readings of Alexia Casale’s The Bone Dragon and Birgit Vanderbeke’s Ich freue mich, dass ich geboren bin, the chapter illustrates how abused children negotiate agency by interacting with objects, narratives, and imaginative constructs such as alter egos or fantastical creatures. These interactions enable spatial and temporal shifts that allow children to distance themselves from trauma and reimagine their roles within family and society. The authors situate these literary examples within broader theoretical frameworks of relational and sociomaterial agency, highlighting literature’s capacity to foreground children’s voices, challenge critical silences around abuse, and expand understandings of child citizenship.