Neither Becoming Nor Being? Children’s Subjectivity and Early Years Theater

This article analyses traditional ways of conceptualising children’s subjectivity. We trace historical approaches to children as ‘becoming’ (in the adult-centred tradition) and the later approach to children as ‘being’, arguing that both of these metaphysical categories are outdated and inadequate for contemporary research. Instead, we postulate the need for a new, less historically burdened ontological formula, which may be rooted in social ontology of childhood. As a potential source of guidance for such an alternative formula, we point to the practices of theatre for the youngest audiences (aged 0-5), which in fact strengthen children’s subjectivity