Researcher: Dr. Alejandro Zamora, Department of Spanish (Hispanic Studies), Glendon, York University
Research Questions: (1) As adults, why do we write about or film childhood? (2) Why is the child a symbol that returns consistently in literature and film during great historical and social defeats? (3) To what extent does the recovery of childhood in writing and film change the perspective, rationality and adult values?
Methodology: Exploratory approach using the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche (three metamorphoses of the spirit), Giorgio Agamben (the destruction of the experience and the origin of the history) and Gilles Deleuze (deterritorialization) to conceptualize the literary and cinematographic construction of childhood.
Results and Conclusions: As with most problems implicated in literature and film epistemology, the knowledge produced from this project is an open one which respects the ambiguity and uncertainty essential to its aims. There will be results but no definitive conclusions.
Dissemination of Results: Dr. Zamora has already presented at several conferences and has published 3 peer-reviewed articles on the subject. Dissemination of results is in French, English and Spanish.
Impact on the Discipline: This is an interdisciplinary project, drawing on both philosophical and literary traditions. In literary studies, it will have an impact on the way the discipline thinks, creates objects of study, or produces the effect of reality.
Impact on Society and Potential Users: Childhood is often perceived as a time of inexperience, instability and as such, according to adult requirements, a necessary period of inadequacy to be endured. This research will provide an alternative perspective on the state of childhood.
Keywords: childhood, youth, novel, cinema, film, Deleuze, experience, world literature