Child language and childhood concept in marcela paz's papelucho series

Abstract

The current article addresses the configuration of child language in the Papelucho series (Marcela Paz), by examining different literary-linguistic resources used by the author, we find an enunciative perspective that subverts the traditional conception of childhood linked to a limited linguistic ability. Conversely, child language is validated through a process of playful linguistic appropriation, participating in the linguistic adult sphere and straining it. We see a narrative voice that constantly blurs and transit between the semiotique and the symbolique language dimensions (Kristeva). This study contributes to the discussion about conceptions of childhood in literature, offering an approach focused on the analysis of an aesthetic singularisation of language, and based on a book series which is a milestone among the cultural production in Chile during the twentieth century.