TY - JOUR

T1 - The linguistic, visual and multimodal representation of two-Mum and two-Dad families in children’s picturebooks

AU - Sunderland, Jane

AU - Mcglashan, Mark

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Gender representation in children’s literature is an established area of research, and the representation of sexuality increasingly so. Less established, however, is work on sexuality in picturebooks, in particular (a) the representation of gay co-parents, and (b) work with a linguistic or multimodal focus. Using a dataset of 25 picturebooks featuring two-Mum and two-Dad families, and focusing on ‘explicitness’ about their sexuality, we explore differences in the representation of the gay Mums and gay Dads. We look first at the book titles and co-parents’ names, using van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Network (1996, 2008) categories of Nomination and Categorization. Secondly, we look at the indexing of gay sexuality through the linguistic, visual and multimodal representation of physical contact, starting with van Leeuwen’s (2008) Visual Social Actor Network. Although the co-parents’ sexuality was shown in positive and diverse ways, Mums were more frequently constructed than Dads as co-parents, and Dads more frequently constructed than Mums as partners. Gender appears to interact with sexuality to produce these gendered representations of the gay Mums and Dads.

AB - Gender representation in children’s literature is an established area of research, and the representation of sexuality increasingly so. Less established, however, is work on sexuality in picturebooks, in particular (a) the representation of gay co-parents, and (b) work with a linguistic or multimodal focus. Using a dataset of 25 picturebooks featuring two-Mum and two-Dad families, and focusing on ‘explicitness’ about their sexuality, we explore differences in the representation of the gay Mums and gay Dads. We look first at the book titles and co-parents’ names, using van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Network (1996, 2008) categories of Nomination and Categorization. Secondly, we look at the indexing of gay sexuality through the linguistic, visual and multimodal representation of physical contact, starting with van Leeuwen’s (2008) Visual Social Actor Network. Although the co-parents’ sexuality was shown in positive and diverse ways, Mums were more frequently constructed than Dads as co-parents, and Dads more frequently constructed than Mums as partners. Gender appears to interact with sexuality to produce these gendered representations of the gay Mums and Dads.

KW - multimodality

KW - representation

KW - social actors

U2 - 10.1177/0963947011435863

DO - 10.1177/0963947011435863

M3 - Journal article

VL - 21

SP - 189

EP - 210

JO - Language and Literature

JF - Language and Literature

SN - 0963-9470

IS - 2

ER -