Abstract
Child soldiers have recently emerged as high-profile legal subjects, claimants with a set of rights all their own under international law, This same period has witnessed a proliferation of child soldier narratives in literary form. Through an analysis of Ken Saro-Wiwa's 1985 novel Sozaboy, Philip Joseph's article locates some of the characteristic features that define the fictional child soldier's subjectivity during the period just prior to legal recognition. He concludes by asking how the altered legal landscape—a product of UN protocols and war crimes tribunals—has shifted the emphasis in recent child soldier literature. The fictional child soldier has changed form, he argues, from a subject who wants to be heard to one who regards his listeners with rage and suspicion.
