Author: Saji Thomas, Sruthi
Title: Gender representation in children's literature and depiction of female characters using archetypal roles : the Indian context
Advisors: Tay, Dennis (ENGL)
Degree: M.A.
Year: 2016
Subject: Children -- Books and reading -- India
Children's literature -- History and criticism.
Women in literature.
Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations
Department: Department of English
Pages: 42 pages : illustrations
Language: English
Abstract: This paper looks into the concept of gender representation in Indian children's literature and highlights the characteristics of the female characters using Jung's (1959) framework of Archetypal roles. An explanatory sequential mix method approach was used for this study. A sample of twenty Children's books were chosen from each of the five different publishing houses situated in India and was found that that there was a significant difference between gender in characters and the different publishing houses. The paper made use of the twelve different Archetypes that Jung (1959) proposed and ten of these archetypal roles were found in forty books which gave an overall view as to how female characters were portrayed within these books. The majority of the books catered to female characters that placed them under the Caregiver role which is one of the Archetypes however It was refreshing to notice female characters taking up hero like roles and exhibiting strong traits that are usually reserved for men such as being strong, brave and opinionated that can be found in other categories such as The Hero and The Explorer within the framework. Furthermore, these strong characters were led by mostly female authors and some of the publishing houses have a good number of female editors and publishers who help create a space for creative writing to take place with female characters in mind.
Rights: All rights reserved
Access: restricted access

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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://theses.lib.polyu.edu.hk/handle/200/8646