Nordic Girlhoods

Nordic Girlhoods

This edited collection is an interdisciplinary and dialogical endeavor focused on the field of Nordic Girlhood Studies. It investigates young femininity as well as the key themes and concepts of Girlhood Studies, including girl power, feminisms, femininity, gender equality, postfeminism and sexualities in the specific cultural, historical and political context of the Nordic region. The chapters of the book consist of thematic case studies, including memories of girl power in the Finnish context, gendered harassment experienced and explained by Finnish girls, troublesome girlhood within the Swedish context and girls’ subjectification projects in Nordic welfare state. Further, the case studies are accompanied by dialogical Outlook-essays, where researchers either outside Nordic region or from adjacent research fields reflect on Nordic Girlhood Studies through comparisons and reflections form their vantage point. The book will be of scholarly interest to researchers and students working especially on the fields of Girlhood Studies, Youth Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology and Cultural Studies both within the Nordic region and outside.

Echo

Astrid Lindgren, Tove Jansson, Selma Lagerlof -- these are only some of the authors included in this remarkable collection of short stories and excerpts from novels and autobiographies. Editors Ia Dubois and Katherine Hanson (An Everyday Story: Norwegian Women's Fiction) have woven together a rich blend of classic and contemporary literature written for and about girls. Girls who dare to ski off high jumps, who build river dams, who scheme to get rich by selling imaginary lottery tickets. Girls who long for their parents to stop quarreling, for their mothers to act normal, for their fathers to understand them. Girls who ponder what to name themselves, how to find and keep a best friend, what their futures will be. Girls who are energetic, wild and breakers of rules. Girls who are thoughtful, astute and delightfully funny. Scandinavia has produced some of world literature's most enduring writing for and about children. Authors such as Tove Ditlevsen, Sigrid Undset, Cora Sandel and Gerd Brantenberg have created memorable portraits of girls coming of age, while Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson are famous world-wide for their charming books about Pippi Longstocking and the Moomin family. Although some of this literature is well-known in translation, Echo is the first time that many of these stories have been published in English. Each of the twenty-eight pieces comes with a brief introduction. With work from four countries -- Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway -- as well as minority voices of the Sami, gypsy and Jewish populations of Scandinavia, Echo is as comprehensive as it is refreshing.

LEIF