Enfants, enfance(s) et agentivité : un champ historique en transformation

Abstract

This article addresses one of the central questions that has animated the field of children's history in recent years: how to go beyond the paradigm of agentivity in the interpretation of the evidences left by children? What interpretative schemes are proposed to replace it? Before addressing this issue and the archival and methodological challenges inherent to it, we propose an overview of the field of children's history. The goal is to offer a French-speaking readership an overview of some of the epistemological reflections that animate this branch of the historical discipline. Exploring themes such as the relationship between voice, experience, emotion and agentivity, the process of constructing the narrative of childhood through archives, and the benefits of transnational perspectives, this text is a plea for a renewal of children's history in the francophone world.