@article{CRSIJ26000113,
                  author = {Malowa Phelphonce Malowa, James Odhiambo Ogone, Otieno Odhiambo George},
                  title = {Retrospection as Aesthetic Strategy in Constructing Child Agency and Narrative Credibility in Southern-African Childhood memoirs},
                  journal = {Cosmo Research and Science International Journal},
                  year = {2025},
                  volume = {1},
                  number = {5},
                  pages = {292-315},
                  issn = {3108-1584},
                  url = {https://cosmorsij.com/published/CRSIJ26000113.pdf},
                  abstract = {Childhood in literary and autobiographical discourse is often framed as a domain of innocence, dependence, and limited epistemic authority, marginalising the child’s capacity for agency and credible self-representation. This study re-examines southern African childhood memoirs by arguing that retrospection functions as a central aesthetic strategy through which child agency and narrative credibility are anchored, while also challenging assumptions about the fallibility of memory. It contends that retrospective narration not only recovers but actively constructs the child as an agentive and perceptive subject. Grounded in autobiographical theory, particularly the autobiographical, relational, and epistemic pacts, the study employs a descriptive-analytic design and purposive sampling to analyse The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Born a Crime, Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, and Kaffir Boy. Through close textual analysis, it examines how techniques such as temporal layering, narrative voice, and selective memory reconstruction shape the child as both credible witness and active participant in meaning-making. Thematically, study is organised around the negotiation of narrative credibility, the reconstruction of child agency through retrospective voice, and the aesthetic reconfiguration of memory as a site of reconstructing lived experiences. The findings both demonstrate that retrospection functions as an aesthetic mechanism that foregrounds narrative truth while enabling representations of childhood as a site of agency, reflexivity, and transformation, and reconfigures memory as a productive site for reconstructing lived experience. By foregrounding retrospection as an aesthetic strategy, the study makes a significant contribution to life-writing scholarship by challenging developmental models that subordinate childhood to adulthood and by repositioning the child narrator as both a legitimate knower and a transformative agent within autobiographical discourse. It further extends debates on memory and narrative truth by demonstrating that the instability of memory is not a limitation but a productive resource for constructing credible and meaningful life narratives.},
                  keywords = {Retrospection, Child agency, Narrative credibility, Southern African memoirs, Autobiographical theory},
                  month = {March}
        }