3/ The European G-BOOK Projects: Tackling Gender Stereotypes and Promoting Respect and Diversity through Children’s Literature
di Raffaella BACCOLINI e Beatrice SPALLACCIA
Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea, N. 60, 4|2024
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| ABSTRACT | TESTO INTEGRALE | GLI AUTORI | REFERENZE | LICENZE |
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“Sleeping Beauty (portrait of a fairy tale)” by frscspd on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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Italiano
La letteratura per l’infanzia svolge un ruolo cruciale nello sviluppo dell’identità di genere di bambine e bambini, che tendono ad accettare i modelli presentati e a identificarsi con i personaggi appartenenti al loro stesso gruppo di genere. I tradizionali stereotipi di genere restano però predominanti in molti Paesi europei, rafforzando l’ineguaglianza nella società. Esistono ancora significative differenze nel modo in cui i Paesi europei affrontano l’identità di genere nei libri per giovani lettori. Dove l’uguaglianza di genere è più rispettata, la produzione di letteratura per l’infanzia orientata al genere è più diffusa. L’articolo riflette sull’importanza dei libri di Elena Gianini Belotti nel campo della letteratura per l’infanzia, partendo dai risultati del progetto europeo G-BOOK (UniBO). Sebbene sia vero che dalla pubblicazione del testo di Gianini Belotti la produzione letteraria orientata al genere sia cresciuta, tale produzione è distribuita in modo disomogeneo tra i Paesi europei. È quindi fondamentale rafforzare la letteratura per l’infanzia orientata al genere offrendo libri con personaggi in grado di rompere gli stereotipi.
Parole chiave: Children’s Literature, G-BOOK projects, gender identity, Harvey Fierstein, Robert Munsch.
English
Children’s literature plays a crucial role in the development of gender identity of girls and boys, who tend to accept the models presented to them and identify with characters that belong to their same gender group. Traditional gender role models are still predominant in many European countries, reinforcing inequality in society. There are still significant differences in the way European countries address gender identity in books for young readers. Where gender equality is more respected, the production of gender-positive children’s literature is more widespread. The paper reflects on the relevance of Elena Gianini Belotti’s books in the field of children’s literature starting from the results of the European project G-BOOK (UniBO). While it is true that since the publication of Gianini Belotti’s text, gender-positive literary production has spread increasingly, this production is unevenly distributed among European countries. Therefore, it is very important to strengthen gender-positive children’s literature by offering books with characters that break stereotypes.
Keywords: G-BOOK projects, Harvey Fierstein, identità di genere, Letteratura per l’infanzia, Robert Munsch.
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Raffaella Baccolini teaches Gender Studies and American and British Literature at the University of Bologna, Forlì Campus. She has published numerous articles on women’s writing, dystopia and science fiction, trauma and memory, modernism, and Young Adult literature. She is the author of Tradition, Identity, Desire: Revisionist Strategies in H. D.’s Late Poetry and has edited several volumes, among which are, with T. Moylan, <i>Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination</i> (New York, Routledge, 2003) and <i>Le prospettive di genere: discipline, soglie, confini</i> (Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2005). She is currently directing the G-BOOK3 project.
Beatrice Spallaccia is junior assistant professor (RTDa) in English Language, Translation and Linguistics at the Department of Interpreting and Translation of the University of Bologna, Forlì Campus. She authored the monograph <i>It’s a Man’s World (Wide Web)</i> (Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2020), which investigates online misogynistic hate speech in Italy, Australia, and the US. She has also published articles on gender, language, and translation. She took part in the European projects G-BOOK1 and 2 (http://www.g-book.eu), and is currently a team member of the G-BOOK 3 project.
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BACCOLINI, Raffaella, SPALLACCIA, Beatrice, «The European G-BOOK Projects: Tackling Gender Stereotypes and Promoting Respect and Diversity through Children’s Literature», Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea, N. 60, 4|2024
URL: <http://www.studistorici.com/2024/12/29/baccolini-spallaccia_numero_60/>
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«The European G-BOOK Projects: Tackling Gender Stereotypes and Promoting Respect and Diversity through Children’s Literature» by Raffaella Baccolini, Beatrice Spallaccia / Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione – Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 Unported.
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