„Piotruś Pan” i "wieczna dziewczynka” – w kalejdoskopie odraczania dorosłości
„Peter Pan” and „the Eternal Girl”: In the Kaleidoscope of Adulthood-Deferral

Summary/Abstract: In the paper, I outline a tolerably complete range of the ways in which adulthood is deferred, focusing in more detail on the two signalled in the title. On my take, the deferral of adulthood implies the following: non-assumption of social family roles by biologically and legally adult individuals; refusal to live outside the family of origin and earn one’s own subsistence; avoidance of vocational tasks, in particular those involving responsibility for others; avoidance of thoughtful engagement in social and/or political activity; and failure to control one’s emotions so as to react adequately and relevantly to the events at hand. I quote statistics indicating young people’s non-involvement in stable vocational activity and their tendency to „prolong childhood” by not moving from the family home and living off their kin. I highlight young adults’ relative non-engagement with politics. The bulk of the paper is devoted to a detailed description of the eponymous figures of “Peter Pan” and “the eternal girl”.

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