Children as full subjects on stage A research on children’s subjectivity and embedded power relations between adults and children in the performances enfant & Horses

Abstract

The representation of the child on stage in the contemporary theatre and dance landscape is changing. For a long period the one-dimensional and inferior view of children, present in society, was represented on stage almost only. enfant and Horses are two performances that exemplify changing representations of the child in performing arts. Both performances reflect on power, agency and subjectivity by featuring adults and children simultaneously on stage. In this Master Thesis, I research how child performers in enfant and Horses are represented differently. Therefore, I especially pay attention to power relations adults and children are embedded in and the construction of children’s subjectivity. Through the lenses provided by Foucault and Butler, I analyse the interaction of power relations and subjectivity. In both performances the children are represented as both subjected to power and powerful subjects. Even if there is a shift in power in both performances, enfant represents static power relations and Horses dynamic power relations. The children’s subjectivities formed on the stage of enfant represent a subordination to the adult norm and reproduce the inferior position of children. Thereby, the representations of children in enfant stay within the dominant discourse on children. The dynamic power relations represented in Horses show agency as both condition and effect of the process of subject-becoming and power-subjection. By the way power is represented on stage, Horses formulates a clear critique to repressive power. Horses includes a scene in which the represented child explores a changing subjectivity. The child subverts the power relations it is embedded in and forms hereby a subjectivity that questions the dominant discourse. In Horses a subjectivity is represented that is no longer inferior to the adult subjectivity. Thereby, the new subjectivity questions the strict separation of the categories adult and child. Horses in this way could be part of a changing discourse on children. So in my Master Thesis I also try to explore how children can be seen as full subjects - on stage and in society.