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Silence and Silencing in Children’s Literature
- 2021
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Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The concept of silence and silencing evokes questions of self in relation to others, of language and of communication, even of what it is that makes us human. It contains numerous interpretative possibilities, all highly relevant for the study of children’s literature. Aiming the searchlight at silence and silencing points at the multiple ways in which children’s literature functions, and how complex and varied – and sometimes paradoxical – children’s literature is as a field. The relationship between children’s literature and silence suggests an intriguing tension between voicing and silencing, between speech and the unspoken. While children’s literature tends to be considered a liberating and empowering force in children’s lives, it can also be seen as implicated in a widespread and deeply rooted discourse of silence and silencing, which draws on the idea that children should be seen but not heard. The theme also draws attention to how children’s literature can both challenge and reinforce notions of which subjects are tabooed or censored, which further points to the necessity of examining the silences and lacunae within children’s literature.This volume springs out of a global congress, IRSCL Congress 2019: Silence and Silencing in Children’s Literature, organized by the editors of this volume in Stockholm, Sweden. The volume includes the five keynotes of the congress as well as a selection of studies sprung from congress presentations. It is divided into five sections: Multiple Facets of Silence and Silencing, Narrating Silence, Addressing Aetonormative Silences, Structural and Societal Silences and Silencing, and Trauma and Traumatic Silences. The book is edited by Elina Druker, Professor at Stockholm University, Sweden; Björn Sundmark, Professor at Malmö University, Sweden; Åsa Warnqvist, Docent and Research Manager at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books, Sweden, and Mia Österlund, Associate Professor at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.
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| 3. |
- Alkestrand, Malin, 1986-
(author)
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Magiska möjligheter : Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl och Cirkeln i skolans värdegrundsarbete
- 2021
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Fantasy literature has the power to explore the real world in a magical guise. By creating magical realms where reality’s natural laws are challenged, subverted, and ultimately broken, this literary genre can help us to look at our own world in a new light. The thesis examines how the distancing perspective of fantasy literature makes this genre an ideal vehicle for discussing democracy, human rights, and multiculturalism in the classroom. The British Harry Potter series, the Irish Artemis Fowl series, and the Swedish Engelsfors Trilogy are analysed. In the first chapter, the thesis’ theoretical framework is presented. The second chapter, ‘Democracy’, explores two examples of the righteous rebellion of the young in the Harry Potter series and the Engelsfors Trilogy. In both cases, the adolescents rebel in order to defend democratic values and democratic rights, when they are threatened by corrupt adults and institutions. At the same time, the rebellions problematise the distribution of power according to age.The third chapter, ‘Human rights’, explores in depth one of the most important genre characteristics of fantasy literature—the existence of magic. Three young fantasy characters’ use of magical powers, for the purpose of challenging the restrictions that intersections impose on them, are investigated and related to questions concerning human rights.The fourth chapter, ‘Multiculturalism’, investigates two culture clashes found in fantasy literature: a body switch between five teenage witches in the Engelsfors trilogy, and a confrontation between the human world and the fairy world in the Artemis Fowl series. In both cases, questions are raised about how a confrontation with “the Other” can enrich our lives and help us realise what type of person we want to be. Thus, the possible gains of multiculturalism are highlighted.Finally, the fifth chapter, ‘Magical possibilities’, summarises the conclusions of the thesis and suggests some guidelines for how teachers can best work with fantasy literature in the classroom.
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- Alkestrand, Malin, 1986-
(author)
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Mothers and Murderers : Adults' Oppression of Children and Adolescents in Young Adult Dystopian Literature
- 2021
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Since the publication of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games in 2008, there has been a boom in literature about dystopias with authoritarian regimes, featuring adults who oppress children and adolescents. Dystopian literature for young adults asks important questions about the consequences of the adult generation’s inability to deal with challenges such as discrimination and dictatorial tendencies. It also illustrates how young people can be oppressed by adults in non-fictional societies by exaggerating the power inequalities between children, adolescents and adults.Mothers and Murderers explores power relationships between adults and the young, using a corpus of around one hundred Anglophone and Swedish dystopian novels for young adult (YA) readers. It highlights the power relationships that come into play when dystopian regimes force young characters to become killers. It also illuminates the relationship of power between children, adolescents and adults by analysing the motif of the adolescent mother. In this dystopian literature, adolescent mothers must be prepared to do whatever it takes to protect their child, even while being oppressed by adults. This book analyses how the power category of age relates to other categories such as gender, race, (dis)ability and class.The genre’s problematisation of adult oppression of the young incorporates an educational potential that can be harnessed in the classroom. By exaggerating actual age-related power inequalities, it can support students and teachers in questioning assumptions about what the young generation needs and what elements of society it needs protecting from.Combining text analyses of the motifs in the corpus, case studies with in-depth analyses of these motifs, and suggestions for teaching plans, this book is aimed at readers who want to explore dystopian literature for young adults, as well as teachers and trainee teachers who want to actualise the educational potential of this genre in the classroom.
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| 6. |
- Andersson, Maria, 1973-
(author)
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Framtidens kvinnor : Mognad och medborgarskap i svenska flickböcker 1832-1921
- 2020
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Book (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The future woman – what would she be like? And what would be her place in society? These questions were explored through stories about girls’ upbringing and education in nineteenth and early twentieth century literature for girls. About the time of the breakthrough of women novelists in the 1830s, books for girls started to be published. They depict everyday games and exhilarating adventures, student life and vocational dreams. By addressing girls directly, these books aimed at both discussing and influencing future female citizens. In Future Women, Maria Andersson shows how Swedish literature for girls and its depiction of young women was a part of the nineteenth century debate on women’s civil and political rights. The genre gathered authors of different political convictions but they were all united by the fact that young women became the focal point of contemporary social changes in their works. Housewifely girls, manly women students and shopping coquettes illustrated different paths to adulthood and modern life. In the girl book genre, the young woman was simultaneously a vehicle of nostalgic memories from a lost world and the promise of a more equal, peaceful future.
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Flickboken och flickors läsning. Flickskapande nu och då
- 2022
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Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Flicka och girl, flickskapande, girlhood och att ”flicka sig” — allt detta är komplexa begrepp som diskuteras och problematiseras på olika sätt inom forskningsfältet girlhood studies. Bidragen i denna antologi handlar om hur flickskap skrivs fram i både historiska och samtida texter och vad det innebär att vara flicka i dessa berättelser.Flickböcker är i en svensk, historisk kontext en speciell genre som känns igen på särskilda mönster, teman och motiv. Dessa böcker har förändrats i takt med tiden och idag är det vanligare att tala om flickors läsning och berättelser med starka flickkaraktärer. Utvecklingen av flicklitteratur och flickkaraktärernas relation till sin omgivning innebär att det är intressant att undersöka dessa berättelser på nya sätt.I antologins olika kapitel diskuteras bland annat den vetenskapande flickan, flickdetektiven, flickbokshjältinnor som lånats från Shakespeares verk, Pippi Långstrump analyserad som flicka, den älskade flickgestalten Kulla-Gulla och flera skrivande flickor.
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- Haglund, Tuva, 1986-
(author)
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Tillsammans i Engelsfors : Socialt fiktionsbruk i Engelsforstrilogins digitala fangemenskap 2011–2016
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The thesis examines a digital reading community within a framework of fan culture. This community was formed in the early 2010s by fans of a Swedish fantasy series, The Engelsfors Trilogy (2011–2013), written by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. Fan culture can be described as an interpretative community with established terminology and repertoires. Within a growing participatory culture, fans’ active engagements with fictional worlds have become mainstream, and more broadly spread. My study focuses on the creative practice of fan art, that is stories, pictures and videos created by fans, with an original work as a point of departure. I examine fan art as a form of reader response, expressed and shared within the digital community. The empirical material consists of blog posts (about 800) published between 2011 and 2016 on six different websites. Focusing on the readers of fan culture, my study combines perspectives of sociology of literature and fan studies. I also use theoretical concepts from narratology to discuss relations between the multiple variations of the Engelsfors universe that emerge through fan art. The analysis is partly a quantitative survey covering the art work’s forms and content, as well as contextual aspects of posting and sharing Engelsfors-related material, partly close readings of the most significant motifs: the engagement with fictional characters and romantic readings of the main love story. The approach provides a holistic perspective, unusual in research about fans and reading communities. By comparing the activities in different digital contexts, I argue for more nuanced perspectives on how digital engagements differ in relation to user purposes. The readers’ art works as well as their interaction, centre on the fictive characters, their features, personalities and relationships. Emotional readings comprise a general focus within fan culture, and among Engelsfors fans the emphasis is on strong positive emotions like affection, friendship, security, romance and love. Paying close attention to emotive aspects of how and why reading experiences are being shared has been a key perspective when looking at how different creative and communicative practices relate to different needs and purposes among the fan readers. Critical modifications of the source text are rare, and instead an enthusiastic and affirmative attitude dominates in relation to the authors’ project as well as to fellow fans in the community.
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| 9. |
- Heil, Raphaela
(author)
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Document Image Processing for Handwritten Text Recognition : Deep Learning-based Transliteration of Astrid Lindgren’s Stenographic Manuscripts
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Document image processing and handwritten text recognition have been applied to a variety of materials, scripts, and languages, both modern and historic. They are crucial building blocks in the on-going digitisation efforts of archives, where they aid in preserving archival materials and foster knowledge sharing. The latter is especially facilitated by making document contents available to interested readers who may have little to no practice in, for example, reading a specific script type, and might therefore face challenges in accessing the material. The first part of this dissertation focuses on reducing editorial artefacts, specifically in the form of struck-through words, in manuscripts. The main goal of this process is to identify struck-through words and remove as much of the strikethrough artefacts as possible in order to regain access to the original word. This step can serve both as preprocessing, to aid human annotators and readers, as well as in computerised pipelines, such as handwritten text recognition. Two deep learning-based approaches, exploring paired and unpaired data settings, are examined and compared. Furthermore, an approach for generating synthetic strikethrough data, for example, for training and testing purposes, and three novel datasets are presented. The second part of this dissertation is centred around applying handwritten text recognition to the stenographic manuscripts of Swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren (1907 - 2002). Manually transliterating stenography, also known as shorthand, requires special domain knowledge of the script itself. Therefore, the main focus of this part is to reduce the required manual work, aiming to increase the accessibility of the material. In this regard, a baseline for handwritten text recognition of Swedish stenography is established. Two approaches for improving upon this baseline are examined. Firstly, a variety of data augmentation techniques, commonly-used in handwritten text recognition, are studied. Secondly, different target sequence encoding methods, which aim to approximate diplomatic transcriptions, are investigated. The latter, in combination with a pre-training approach, significantly improves the recognition performance. In addition to the two presented studies, the novel LION dataset is published, consisting of excerpts from Astrid Lindgren's stenographic manuscripts.
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