Schreeuwen de meeuwen of spreken ze?: Kinderen, dieren en de macht van de verbeelding in Annie M.G. Schmidts Pluk van de Petteflet (1971)

Abstract

In this article the author explores how Annie M.G. Schmidt’s Pluk van de Petteflet (1971) employs anthropomorphism to question power relations between children and adults, as well as between humans and animals. Childlike intuition, particularly the ability to identify with animals, is presented not as ignorance but as a precondition for a world in which humans and animals, adults and children, coexist in relational interaction. The capacity to communicate with each other plays a crucial role in this process. The central opposition in the story is therefore not between humans and animals, but between those who are open to cross-species communication and those who are not. This reconfiguration of power relations also affects the representation of animals. Domesticated animals must relinquish their traditional role as allies of the child character to species that more easily evade human control, such as seagulls and pigeons. These ‘liminal animals’ mirror the emergent, autonomous conception of childhood as articulated in Schmidt’s canonical work.