Bodies and Voices in Chilean Children's Literature: Fifty Years of Silencing Childhood (1920-1970)

Abstract

This article addresses the silencing procedures of children's bodies and voices in Chilean children's literature between 1920 and 1970. This analysis draws on concepts that come from narratology and feminist insights. The strongly established trend of the absence and displacement of child characters' bodies and voices during this period provides evidence for the aetonormativity stance that defines the emergence and first decades of the narrative genre for children in Chile. This work offers a diachronic approach seeking to contribute to the scarce knowledge of the origins and development of children's literature produced in Chile.