The article analyses narratives on childhood present in peasant diaries written shortly after World War II, and referring to peasant memories of the interwar period. The text is written in the perspective of new childhood studies. It shows how childhood is constructed in these written practices, and what purpose the narratives serve, as well as how these narratives are positioned in the broader context of modern discourses created around childhood by other social classes. The central issue tackled in the paper is their portrayal of children’s agency, and how it relates to the question of social advancement. The author argues that children’s silent and invisible self-reliance—understood as inconspicous agency—eludes the adult narratives of the time, focused on depicting advancement, and at the same time is crucial for achieving such advancement.
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