Representation of Gender Roles in Children’s Fictional Tales: A Semiological Discourse Analysis
Keywords:
Semiological Discourse Study, Sensual roles, Kids’ Make-believe Narrative, Print Broadcasting StoriesAbstract
The goal of the current study was to examine gender portrayals in children’s fantasy literature using a few chosen significant school storybooks. The gender ideology that underlies the representation of gender stereotypes in language and semiotics is shown by the current research. Gender ideology is shaped by children’s storybooks. Schoolchildren are exposed to stories that perpetuate stereotypes through the portrayal of characters. Stories are created within cultural frameworks. Since they are the offspring of this specific cultural setting, children have a tendency to act in ways that align with the gendered ideals that permeate popular culture. Historical records are found in fantasy literature. The current study, which is qualitative in nature, looks at gender portrayals in narrative books. Five children’s fantasy fiction storybooks are examined in this study. Purposive sampling is the method used to choose the data. The Barthes (1974) paradigm has been utilized by scholars for semiological study. The results show that children’s fantasy literature from the twenty-first century emphasizes the issue of gender portrayals. It has been noted that in a patriarchal society, males have authority. They are free to utilize their free will in any circumstance simply because they are powerful, but women are only valued in the home. However, there are instances where gender roles are inverted, as seen in stories where women are represented as witches and males are shown to be dependent on women. The research also demonstrates the influence of customs and traditions on women’s results. By analyzing picture books, the study expands our understanding of the phenomena of gender representations and encourages future scholars to investigate gender representations in more detail.
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