| Abstract [eng] |
The object of this thesis is a representation of fathers in selected five Scandinavian picture books while the purpose of this study is to analyze and determine how the masculinity of the fathers is constructed visually and textually in the family context. Theoretical background is based on social constructivist approach (Connell, Bourdieu, Butler) which state that gender performance is socially constructed by some factors rather than biologically inherited. In addition, the chosen theorists’ approaches are applied to gender relativeness of masculinity in contexts of fatherhood and family. For the analysis five picture books were chosen: three Swedish, one Norwegian and one Danish. The books met criteria for the book being a picturebook and they could be used in pre-schools as a teaching material for gender education with a help of father’s character who plays an important role in protagonists’ life. To accomplish this analysis the picturebooks must have been published not later than 2000 and aimed for 3-6 years old reading age so that the books would depict the modern father’s portrayal in childrens’ literature. The analysis is based on a method which consists of Gérard Genette's narratological analysis of narrative together with Maria Nikolajeva's and Carole Scott's narratological analysis of the interplay between text and image in picture books. The analysis results show that fathers masculinities’ go through transformation from one Connell’s masculinity category to another with a help of “internal focalizer” which appears to be a child in a narrative. Furthermore, complementary pictures help to reveal more objective portrait of a father than the story’s narrator presents them. Besides that, in some picturebooks fathers break down the gender roles’ “habitus” in a family context which forces us to reconsider the “natural” masculinity’s performance acts. In that way the narrative depicted fathers’ image showed transformation to SSMS (“Sensitive New Man Schema”) properties. Finally, by means of theoretical base and analyzed picturebooks it appeared that “a good father” image is not related to “a good husband” image because these roles are separate cultural codes and conventions which are in these picturebooks portrayed through the humoristic lens to reach not only children audience but also the adult one. |
