Browsing by Author "Rytkönen, Jasmiina"

Gender is a culturally, socially and personally significant category which is produced, repeated and reformed constantly in different social and cultural contexts. Biography is a literary genre, in which the main character is often presented in the frame of hero story. Biographies convey different time and place dependent teachings and values to their readers – including gender. The aim of this study was to find out in which ways the heroism of today is built and simultaneously consider in which ways heroism is gendered. In other words how through discourses the behaviors and actions which guide norms are replicated, violated and rebuilt through stories. The study also examined how gender diversity is taken into account in the stories. Biographical literature aimed at children is a popular genre nowadays, but it has not been studied before. Biographies and their gendered nature are also important to be studied from the perspective of literary education because in accordance with the national core curriculum for basic education (POPS 2014), literature teaching should deal with diverse texts in a gender-conscious manner. The research data consisted of three biographical books in the Sankaritarinoita -book series (Hero Stories) published during the 2017–2019. There were total of 146 stories in the books. The research materials were themed and the themes were quantitatively compared. The heroism and gender norms of the stories were qualitatively explored through critical discourse analysis. The data found five discourses I named after their thematic focus: violators of gendered behavioral patterns, violators of gender expression, breakers of professional segregation, breakers of the heterofamily ideal and crossers of the gender boundary. Girls’ heroism was built from emacipatory goals, the need for which was justified in the stories of female heroines dealing with the history of gender equality and the segregation of work life. Boys’ heroism was built on sensibility and eccentricity that rose in the stories of male heroes dealing with emotional skills and the violation of gender norms. The gender minorities were in a marginal position (4 %) in the stories. Overall, themes related to the diversity of gender and sexuality were brought up in only a few hero stories.