Wydobyte z ciszy – dziecięce narracje o świecie. Polsko-ukraińskie studium porównawcze

Abstract

Brought out of silence is a category used by Smolińska-Theiss to present children’s narrations and dialogues about their everyday matters. They take the form of letters to God, to presidents, albums with children’s drawings, photos, children’s films, graffiti, posts and comments. Originally, they date back to Korczak’s studies. Our text is also an act of letting children speak and appreciating their comments and opinions. It is concerned with children’s understanding of the world. Defining the meaning of life by children is the key category here. We called it “a comparative study” due to the fact that we will present utterances by both Polish and Ukrainian children as the category “a meaning of life” may be interpreted differently in various cultural, political or social contexts. The research carried out both in Poland and abroad indicates that a child is a competent unit capable of making logical utterances with the content which shows deep understanding of the world. This text is based on the following theoretical studies: – thinking about a child originating in a postmodernist childhood paradigm as well as psychological constructivism; – the analysis of research material has been based on Judith Butler’s theory – Frames of War.