En skildring av hur tredje världen framställs inom ett urval av västerländsk barnlitteratur utifrån en postkolonial teori : En kvalitativ textanalys

Sammanfattning: In recent years, the characterization of the Third World and its inhabitants in West-originated children’s books has been subject to debate. Media attention around a selection of books has generated discussions on how this relates and aligns with Sweden’s national teaching curriculum. The objective of this study is to explore how a selection of authors, born in Western countries, have characterized and presented the Third World and its inhabitants in its literature. To meet the research objective, I have used a qualitative methodology of text analysis and analysed the material using post-colonial and feminist post-colonial theory. The study has been conducted from a social constructivist research perspective, which states that knowledge is socially constructed. The studied material consists of six books, originating from three Western countries. The study concludes that the characterization of the Third World and its inhabitants constitutes an antipode to the Western’s self-image of being sensible, civilized and controlled. Filtered through the lens of a Western self-image, the Third World and its inhabitants have been ascribed characteristics such as barbaric, wild and uncontrollable. This characterization is discussed from the perspective of Sweden’s teaching curriculum. A critical approach is required, to avoid the reproduction of negative Third World characterizations. Nonetheless, the selected children’s books still serve as valuable historic pieces, which can contextualize and improve our understanding of dynamics underlying relations between the West and Third World today.