Browsing by Author "Tuohilampi, Jasmiina"

The meaning for this research was to explain what kind of diverse characteristics there are in Supermarsu -books and how they are related to. In addition to this my goal was also to consider how it is possible to teach and raise children to diversity with Supermarsu -books. With this research I want to deepen the understanding of diversity for parents and teachers as well as widen their views of how to use children´s literature for respectful interaction. My research questions are: 1. What kind of diversity is there in the characters of Supermarsu –books? 2. How do people relate to diversity in the bookserie? The research was carried out as qualitative research and my method was theory-leading analysis of the content. With the help of Fokkeman´s code model the charateristics were divided in codes. Denotative codes are names and the third person of pronoun and connotative biological, logical, social, psychological methonomical and metaphor codes. Using model by Ewen I classified characters to round and flat or static and dynamic. Roud character has several characteristics and flat character has one characteristic or one dominative characteristic and few non- dominative. Static character doen´t develop during the story and dynamic develops. Helin´s "value fields of the mind" was also used to place characters to different areas such as value, accept, endure or not to endure area. My main theory was the book The Rhetoric of Character in Children´s Lirerature by Maria Nikolajeva. I used Paula Noronen´s 10 Supermarsu -books. In the results of the research you can see that in the bookseries there are plenty of different kind of characters, differing for example in ethnicity, sex, socio-economic position and personality. The main character, Emilia, is round and dynamic character and supporting characters mostly flat and static. The main attitude for diversity in understanding, but also bullying appears. Emilia has no prejudines and therefor offers a good role model for children to identify with.