THE IMAGE OF THE CHILD IN 21ST-CENTURY ENGLISH SCIENCE FICTION
Keywords:
childhood in literature, science fiction, child protagonists, posthumanism, contemporary English literature.Abstract
This article examines the representation of child characters in three influential works of contemporary English speculative fiction: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman. Using qualitative literary analysis informed by childhood studies and posthumanist theory, the research explores how these narratives construct childhood in relation to power structures, technological intervention, and moral responsibility. The findings indicate that contemporary science fiction redefines the child figure as a site of vulnerability, perception, and ethical agency. Rather than passive symbols, children function as central narrative agents through whom authors interrogate social systems, technological ethics, and cultural anxieties about the future. The study demonstrates that modern science fiction increasingly uses childhood as a critical lens for exploring the relationship between humanity, technology, and moral responsibility in the twenty-first century.
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