‘When I was a child I thought as a child ...’: The Importance of Memory in Constructions of Childhood and Social Order in a Selection of Post-disaster Fictions

Abstract

In lieu of abstract, here is the first paragraph of the article:

This paper will analyse the construction of childhood in three post-disaster texts for young readers: Ruth Hooker’s Kennaquhair, Robert C. O’Brien’s Z for Zachariah, and Hugh Scott’s Why Weeps the Brogan?, exploring how the relationship between particular notions of childhood and memory are used to show protagonists’assumption of power and hence choice in how they respond to the social orders in which they find themselves. ‘Power’ has been defined in many ways, but I will use the definition which Roberta Trites draws from the work of Judith Butler: ‘Power is the force that allows for subjectivity and consequently, agency’ (Trites 2000, p.3). Whereas O’Brien’s and Scott’s novels place their protagonists in dystopian settings, Hooker’s Kennaquhair presents a small-scale utopia and implies a younger readership than do the other two texts, and I will argue that the utopia in this text can only work in narrative terms because the novel is aimed at children rather than young adults.