Barnboken – Journal of Children's Literature Research
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Girls’ Classics and Constraints in Translation: A Case Study of Purifying Adaptation in the Swedish Translation of L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon
No full textThis case study discusses constraints related to the image of girlhood and gender roles evident in the abridged and adapted Swedish translation of L.M. Montgomery’s girls’ classic Emily of New Moon published in 1955by Gleerups. The 1950s are called the golden age of girls’ books in Sweden because their publication peaked during this period. However, the popularity of girls’ books during the 1950s did not correlate with high status. Adaptation of translations was common, which indicates the low status of the genre. The Swedish translation of Emily of New Moon was adapted for a younger target audience than Montgomery’s original, and abridged to a lower page count required by the publisher series in which the book was included. The publisher imposed didactic constraints on the book, and these constraints are a sign of conservative and protective strategies and authoritarian attitudes. The adaptation reflects what kind of books the publisher wanted to present to girls, and largely involves purification of unconventional behavior and sexuality. This was consistent with didactic translation norms, reflected in the origin of girls’ books in educational literature. The translation presents a clear, unambiguous and conventional model for the appropriate behavior of girls, and female characters represent more restrictive gender roles than in the original
Nina Goga et al. Ecocritical Perspectives on children's Texts and Cultures: Nordic dialogues
No full textReview/recensio
Toninas ideal och Pellas praktik: Konsumtionskultur och uppfostran i Ingegerd Granlunds Tolv brev till Tonina och signaturen Claques Pellaböcker
No full textTitle: The Ideals of Tonina in the Practices of Pella. Consumption and Disciplinary Regimes in Ingegerd Granlund’s Tolv brev till Tonina and the Pseudonym Claque’s Pella BooksThe article explores how discourses on teenage femininity in the popular advice manual for teenage girls Tolv brev till Tonina (Twelve Letters to Tonina, 1956) by Ingegerd Granlund, are contextualised and negotiated in the equally popular series for young girls by Anna Lisa Wärnlöf, pen-name Claque: Pellas bok (Pella’s Book, 1958), Pellas andra bok (Pella’s Second Book, 1959), Pella i praktiken (Pella in Practice, 1960), and Lennerboms (The Lennerboms, 1965). These texts were published in a time of transition, just before the waves of protest ignited by those born during or just after World War II. This generation would later challenge many norms of the time, but this is not yet discernable in the advice manual or the Pella novels, both narratives of transition from childhood to womanhood. Teenagers emerged as a specific group of consumers in the post-war years; especially the young female body transpires as a focal point of attention for disciplinary regimes and discursive practices. In the advice manual these discursive patterns are quite clear; the teenage girl becomes a respectable woman through carefully measured practices, and a never-tiring attention centred around the body, in constant need of correction. In the Pella novels, we meet a range of normative feminine identities, but one person stands out for belonging to a different class than the others, her body being in need of these correcting discursive practices in order to pass as respectable. The article analyzes the presence of attention geared towards money and material things in these texts. The well-dressed female body and the well-matched closet are assets, not just a sign of good taste but also of respectability, interpreted as class. Class, expressed as style, is clearly marked out: the body most severely judged is the (young) feminine body labeled as working class
Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks
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Det är saligare att investera än att ge: Entreprenörskap i Sveriges Televisions julkalender
No full textTitle: It is More Blessed to Invest than to Give. Entrepreneurship in the Swedish Television Christmas CalendarCultural representations of entrepreneurship frequently overshadow positive traits in favor of greed as a central motif, particularly in children’s culture. The Swedish Christmas calendar, broadcasted on national television, has been criticized for conveying a negative view of capitalism including a portrayal of entrepreneurs as villains. However, emphasis on profession fails to acknowledge its engagement with entrepreneurship in relation to the neoliberal version of homo economicus (the economic subject). Drawing on the writings of Michel Foucault and Gary S. Becker, the aim is to show that portrayals of entrepreneurship in the Christmas calendar evoke both positive and negative connotations. In the Dickens-inspired calendar Tjuvarnas jul (The thieves’ Christmas, 2011), the two main antagonists are the head of a department store and the captain of the thieves. Both are portrayed as void of moral judgment, aiming to accumulate capital, but unlike the captain of the thieves, the head of the department store reinvests hers. Re-investment emerges as the main dividing line between good and bad capitalist behavior. When the head of the department store stops re-investing, leaving a monetary deficit behind, the accumulated funds of the captain of the thieves secure market balance and a flourishing of professional entrepreneurship. In the calendar Kaspar i Nudådalen (Kaspar in Nudå valley, 2001), the protagonist aims to receive a maximum amount of Christmas gifts. To ensure this, he creates a measuring tool whereby he can evaluate his actions and its outcome: good actions allow him to advance a step and bad actions force him to retreat. His everyday accounting emphasizes the construction of subjectivity as a distinct homo economicus as the measuring tool begins to shape his being, disciplining his thoughts and actions. Together, the two Christmas calendars emphasize entrepreneurship as an ambivalent discourse beyond a biased negative view of capitalism in children’s culture
