Barnboken – Journal of Children's Literature Research
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Mia Österlund, Ann-Charlotte Palmgren och Pia Ahlbäck (red.), Tidsligheter: Ekokritiska, barnlitterära och kulturteoretiska perspektiv på tid.
No full textReview/Recensio
Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak och Zoe Jaques (red.), Intergenerational Solidarity in Children’s Literature and Film
No full textReview/Recensio
Rävjägaren och pärlemor : Moderskap och biologi hos Kitty Crowther
No full textTheme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén
The Fox Hunter and the Mother of Pearl: Motherhood and Biology in the Works of Kitty Crowther
This article examines the biological aspect of motherhood in Kitty Crowther’s writing, in particular L’enfant racine (2003; The Root Child) and Mère Méduse (2014; Mother Medusa). By paying attention to the intertextual relations and the metaphorical aspects of the images, the analysis demonstrates how Crowther’s iconotext relates to a conflict-filled discourse about mothering and biology. The two works in focus activate dissimilar intertexts, which share references to fertility and pregnancy. L’enfant racine is based on folklore, such as the Czech fairy tale “Otesánek” and Queen Mab. In Mère Méduse the story of Poseidon’s/Neptune’s rape of Medusa in Roman-Greek mythology constitutes an implicit prehistory to the narrative. The two books build up different kinds of symbolism, where a common point is the depiction of parenthood as a more or less organic relationship. In L’enfant racine, it is a hen-chasing fox who lures the soon-to-be adoptive mother into a mysterious forest, and once she finds the child Root, he is literally bereft of his roots. In Mère Méduse, the central symbol is the mother’s living hair, forging an organic bond with the child. Added to this is a play with literal and figurative representations based on the properties of the jellyfish and the mussel’s defence against pebbles through the creation and enclosing of a pearl – in mother of pearl. Crowther’s iconotexts transform conventional symbolism, thus calling for a reflection on the words and images which are used in our culture to speak of motherhood
Det som ikke vises : Om Busters mor i bok og på film
No full textTheme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén
That Which Is Not Shown: Buster’s Mother in the Book and on Screen
This article is a study of mother characters in the stories about Buster Oregon Mortensen, as they are portrayed in books and on screen. The children’s book Busters verden (Buster’s World) by Bjarne Reuter was published in 1979 and it has later been adapted into two movies with different directors. I investigate the portrayal of Buster’s mother in the three versions of the story and how she changes as a character in the adaptations. Through adaptation analysis I explore the various expectations of her as a mother, and how her social circumstances affect her ability to protect and raise her children. By studying how Buster’s mother is portrayed in different media expressions produced over forty-two years, I demonstrate how each narrative addresses children regarding the topic of motherhood. In the book the mother is presented as a victim of abuse and violence who is exhausted and annoyed, while in the first film she is portrayed as a quiet figure who mostly remains a neutral character in the background, and in the second she is absent due to her own studies
Martin Hellström, 286 stycken ur barnteaterns oskrivna historia: Barnbiblioteket Sagas pjäser
No full textReview/Recensio
Astrid Lindgren and the Nightingale’s Song
No full textTheme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén
This article analyzes the nightingale motif in Swedish author Astrid Lindgren’s short story “Spelar min lind, sjunger min näktergal” (“My Nightingale is Singing”), first published in her collection Sunnanäng (The Red Bird, 1959). The lineage of the motif is traced back to ancient Greek folklore, where the nightingale’s lament symbolizes maternal grief over the loss of a child. It is argued that Lindgren’s story can be interpreted as a modern reimagining of a specific strand in the mythological tradition surrounding the rape of Philomela and the infanticide committed by Procne to avenge her sister. Lindgren alludes to a version of the story found in fable collections, which centers on the reunion of the two sisters after their metamorphosis into birds. In the Greek myth, especially as it was interpreted by Romantic writers, a bereaved mother is transformed into the nightingale, eternally lamenting her loss and thereby transfiguring human suffering into beauty. In Lindgren’s story, Malin longs to bring beauty to the bleak world of the orphanage, first miraculously causing a linden tree to grow in its yard, but ultimately giving her spirit to the tree, where it is heard in the song of a nightingale among its branches. “Spelar min lind, sjunger min näktergal” thus represents Lindgren’s innovative culmination of a long fable tradition with pre-classical origins, where the child becomes the agent of transformation
“A Precocious Little Mother with a Child’s Face”: A Maternal Ethics of Care in Martha Sandwall-Bergström’s Kulla-Gulla Books
No full textTheme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén
Although Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking captured international attention, Martha Sandwall-Bergström’s contemporaneous Kulla-Gulla books (1945–1951) were beloved by generations of readers, despite being discounted as girls’ books or considered insufficiently feminist by critics. A retrospective view, however, reveals that the Kulla-Gulla series offers something more radical than it may seem: it not only reflects twentieth-century Swedish social democratic values of the time and a utopian feminist social model (Toijer-Nilsson; Heggestad, Värld; Nilson) grounded in early Swedish feminist thought, but also, despite the heroine’s own orphaned and motherless state, espouses a maternal ethics of care, which positions the books as pathbreaking still today in a wider global context. The orphan heroine’s assumption of responsibility for effectively motherless children and her rejection of her own elevation from poverty to privilege – until the children she mothers are taken care of also – embody collective responsibility for the vulnerable. Continually emblematized by the heroine, this ethics of care gradually expands to encompass care for other vulnerable figures in the community and finds embodiment in other exemplary characters as well. Key plot points, major characters, and the overall narrative arc demonstrate the books’ radically inclusive and feminist social model and deliver its message of social reform to a young audience
”När vi rider tillsammans känns hon mer som en kompis än som en mamma” : Modersvariationer i tre hästbokserier av Pia Hagmar
No full textTheme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén
”When We Ride Together, She’s More like a Friend than a Mum”: Mothering Variations in Three Horse Story Series by Pia Hagmar
This article analyzes how the horse story setting problematizes the conception of the good mother and normative mothering, by elucidating how the gazes of the young main characters on their mothers function in relation to the notion of the good mother, how this influences the mothering and how the mothering characters challenge this notion. Mothering is seen here as caring practices, which can be performed by people other than mothers. The analysis of three horse story series by Pia Hagmar, the books on Klara (1999–2008), the books on Millan (2012–2014) and the books on Juli (2019–2021), shows that the series depict motherhood and mothering at the intersection between the conception of the good mother and the good horse person. The common denominator is nurturing traits that make personal needs take the back seat – for the traditional good mother to the benefit of her children, for the good horse person to the benefit of the horse. Hagmar normalizes the presence of several mothering characters in addition to their mothers around the horse girls. Furthermore, these characters, who function as mothering variations, contribute to the creation of a solid caring environment, reducing the demands on mothers who try to be everything to their children. Although the daughters’ views of their mothers are sometimes critical, Hagmar allows the mothers to be imperfect, partly incompetent, or simply women with their own agency,interests and needs outside of motherhood. In addition, a mother-daughter relationship built on a common interest in horses allows for a friendship with a common focus – the horse
