This article considers whether the youth novels of Gie Laenen, a Flemish author who was convicted of the sexual abuse of teenage boys, can be read as a grooming tool for the way they offer positive literary models for a range of intimate (but not explicitly sexual) man-boy relationships. Surveying most of Laenen's published work, the discussion identifies three recurring narrative tropes and several paratextual elements that can be read as attempts to seduce young male readers into a receptive attitude towards intergenerational intimacies. However, the article also acknowledges that such a reading might obscure the reasons why young readers were attracted to Laenen's work, which would impoverish our understanding of the books’ complex seductive appeal.
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.
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