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Anti-racist Strategies in Finnish Children’s Literature: Physical Appearance and Language as Signifiers of National Belonging

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Abstract

This article examines anti-racist strategies employed in Finnish children’s literature. The examples from four stories illustrate that certain physical characteristics and cultural markers can become strong signifiers of nationality, that is Finnishness. The characters in these stories have to cope with experiences of exclusion and loneliness before the people around them learn that difference and diversity do not change the fact that all humans are worth the same. However, the paper argues that the intended positive outcome of books with a strong anti-racist agenda threatens to be lost as heavily accentuated moral lessons often become counterproductive. The paper demonstrates some of the changes that have taken place in Finnish children’s literature during the past two decades and addresses significant cultural and societal issues that affect children’s everyday lives.

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Notes

  1. All translations are mine.

  2. With regard to the debate on non-native writers of children’s literature (e.g. Botelho and Masha, 2009; Lindgren, 1991), it is important to acknowledge that all but one of the writers of these books are Finnish-born. Maggie Lindholm, the second author of Bibi moves to Finland (2005) was born in Lebanon. Although I am aware of the discussions related to the authenticity of cultural elements, that topic lies beyond the scope of this article.

  3. It is noteworthy that there are two official, national languages in Finland: Finnish and Swedish. The country may be bilingual but less than 300,000 people, i.e. 5.4 % of population (see Official Statistics Finland, 2012a, b) speak Swedish as their mother tongue, and the Swedish skills of the rest of the population are not particularly good. Hence, it is not surprising that only the Finnish language is mentioned in the data analyzed.

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Correspondence to Jaana Pesonen.

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Jaana Pesonen graduated from the Intercultural Teacher Education programme (Master of Education, University of Oulu, Finland). Her Master focused on educational sciences. She has worked as a teacher at the university, at the lower middle school and upper middle school, as well in youth special education, and adult immigrant teaching. Since 2009, she has worked with her research topic Children’s Literature as a Pedagogical and Literature Forum: The Changing Representations of Diversity in Finnish Children’s Literature.

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Pesonen, J. Anti-racist Strategies in Finnish Children’s Literature: Physical Appearance and Language as Signifiers of National Belonging. Child Lit Educ 44, 238–250 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-012-9186-z

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