Infantilism – Untapped Potential in the Perspective of Becoming an Adult. Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – “Experience of Infantilism”
Abstract
The aim of the article is not to discuss the perspective of indolence, but to focus on using childhood potential in building adulthood. For this purpose, the author invokes the philosophical tale The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which perfectly illustrates the relationship between an adult and a child, a symbolic relationship between being a child and being and becoming an adult. Following this logic, the use of The Little Prince is the key to understand the category of infantilization, thereby reflecting the way and content of value applicability. The author begins her considerations with the attempt to define infantilization, entering the representations by G. Bachelard, R. Barber and C.G. Jung into the discourse. The next step is referring to the category of the novel as “the laboratory of the human soul” (Jaworska-Witkowska), and thus as rewarding material for analysis which is crucial for the pedagogical discourse. The second part of the text includes several ways of interpreting The Little Prince, with pedagogical reflection in the background.
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