The objective of the following essay is to investigate in what way trans- and nonbinary people are portrayed in children’s literature. It aims to answer questions such as in what way the trans characters in the books examined are portrayed, and which stories and narratives are being told and reproduced, as well as which stories are missing or get neglected. The method used here is content analysis, in which twelve books make out the material for analysis. Out of these twelve, four books are analysed further and are presented in a more detailed manner. The content analysis is carried out by examining the literature based on how the stories are affected by their trans characters and how, if at all, the word trans is used by the author. In the result, the literature is categorized depending on where the focus of the story lies – and how the story is connected to the trans character in question. We learn that most of the books at hand can be classified as books without a focus on trans themes, and the remaining books either have a symbolic focus on trans themes, or a story mainly focused on a character being trans. This essay then discusses if literature with less outspoken trans themes are more attractive to conservative publishers, and why some of the literature with more uncommon themes are, as such, uncommon. The discussion also shines a light on the portrayal of nonbinary people, and raises questions regarding how we view gender based on looks and stereotypically gendered items. In conclusion, the essay finds that the books analysed here fails to show the diversity found in the trans community and in the way trans- and nonbinary people exist.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-351456 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Charlotta |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier |
| 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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