ABSTRACT
This chapter considers two theoretical approaches to narrative in the context of children's art-making: research that conceptualises narrative as indicative of a child's internal preoccupations and external circumstances, and research that rejects this model in favour of understanding narrative as arising from the ever-becoming interplay of person, environment and materials. It describes the tension between these two approaches to wider debates that surround the notion of self-expression in children's creativity, a notion that has been unsettled by a postmodern scepticism about the existence of a self that exists prior to acts of creativity. The chapter explores the potential of digital technologies to further disturb our understanding of children's narrative during art-making, drawing on examples of children's digital art-making and exploring these examples through Deleuzian philosophy. It argues that examples of digital art-making are particularly effective in helping us to challenge our understanding of how children's narratives develop and what they represent.
