The aim of this study was to discover if there has been any changes regarding the male ideal in YA literature over time based on the gender related changes that recently have taken place in the Swedish society. The investigation is completed through a comparative analysis of the male characters in Katarina von Bredow’s Syskonkärlek (1991) and Klättra Uppåt (2020) from the female protagonists’ perspective. This is done against the context based of the historic inequality rooted in gender norms together with patterns in romance literature. The female protagonists’ choice of man together with the use of moral characters are the main sources in validating who the ideal male is in each novel. Concepts such as R.W. Connells ‘hegemonic masculinity’ and Thomas Johansson’s theory about demasculinity detects hierarchies among the male characters which are later included in the conclusion. Through the analysis the discovery of some changes are made which states that the fear of femininity has reduced over time and that the use of dominance through anger and violence has become less desirable in men. This change in values could be an effect of the changes in the Swedish society regarding the fact that YA literature often has been put in the position of holding a moral responsibility and therefore is known for depicting contemporary norms and values.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-179692 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Lynne, Ida |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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