Neither Becoming Nor Being? Children’s Subjectivity and Early Years Theater

Abstract

This article analyses traditional ways of conceptualising children’s subjectivity. We trace historical approaches to children as ‘becoming’ (in the adult-centred tradition) and the later approach to children as ‘being’, arguing that both of these  metaphysical categories are outdated and inadequate for contemporary research. Instead, we postulate the need for a new, less historically burdened ontological formula, which may be rooted in social ontology of childhood. As a potential source of guidance for such an alternative formula, we point to the practices of theatre for the youngest audiences (aged 0-5), which in fact strengthen children’s subjectivity