Creative Imagination and Subjective Agency in Wynne-Jones’ The Maestro

The Canadian young adult novel The Maestro by Tim Wynne-Jones foregrounds the relationship between imagination and subjective agency. While Burl uses his imagination at the beginning to protect himself from his abusive father, his fantasies become dress rehearsals for small performances that allow him to try on new identities and exercise autonomy through conscious choice of possible actions. The protagonist’s imagination, nurtured by reading fairy tales, allows him to move out of his lonely private realm into intersubjective relationships with others, particularly with parental figures who support his developing sense of agency