TY  - JOUR
A1  - Eecke, Christophe van
T1  - School for scandal : the erotics of progressive education in Gie Laenen’s juvenile novels
T2  - Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung : GKJF
N2  - This article examines three novels by the popular Flemish youth author Gie Laenen, written between 1975 and 1982, in which the theories and practices associated with progressive education in the 1970s are key elements of the narrative. It argues that Laenen, who was convicted in 1973 and again in 2008 of serial sexual abuse of teenage boys, used progressive education as a narrative trope both to suggest to his young readers that close attachments between young boys and adult men were harmless and to provide an exculpatory defence for his own acts. Through narratological analysis and a contextualisation of the novels within the educational culture of the time, the article shows how Laenen – by drawing upon the ideas of progressive education, using these ideas to shape his narratives, and suggesting parallels between himself (as author) and several main characters – effectively appropriated the ideals of progressive education for ulterior purposes to justify his own abusive behaviour.
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/49970
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-499705
SN  - 978-3-00-060536-9
SN  - 2568-4477
VL  - 2018
SP  - 112
EP  - 122
PB  - Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung
CY  - Frankfurt am Main
ER  -