Literatura infantojuvenil e questões de género: casos que são “Cinco Cantinhos” na roda privada ou social

Abstract

In this text we will start from five works dedicated or adapted to children's reading. Four of them are texts and books of different genres and media, published in Portugal between 1965 and 2011, which portray, question or promote behaviours related to gender stereotypes, in various areas, and in which the intimate space of the family and home is predominant, although not exclusive, especially in the more recent ones. We will come to a fifth work, not published in Portugal, by a famous British youtuber, which can help us better read the future of gender representation in literature for the youngest.

We chose this path to, among the fictitious plots studied, raise and propose answers, or at least lines of discussion, on the following questions: 1) is awareness of difference part of social pressure or individual orientation? 2) can generational interaction promote continuity or, conversely, foster the challenge of gender bias? 3) and these, the continuity or the answer, depend, fundamentally, on the generation gap or before the social changes?