Knights, Rulers, Pilgrims and Writers: Female Characters in Medieval Children’s Books
By Chantal van den Berg
Master’s Thesis, Utrecht University, 2015
British Library, Harley MS 4431, f. 290r
Introduction: Fiction is of vital importance in helping to create a greater understanding of history by making it accessible for young readers. This is particularly true of the obscure Middle Ages and the role occupied by women during this period. School history lessons tend to portray the Middle Ages from a male perspective. Women were daughters, wives and mothers, and they remained on the side-line.
However, historical fiction has the power to create a past that focusses more attention on women. It can give these women on the side-lines of history a voice. Historical fiction can teach readers what life could be like for women in this period and help create a greater understanding of the medieval period.
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In 1971, Alleen Pace Nilsen wrote about female characters in children’s picture books. She noticed that female characters were a minority and that both girls and boys were often depicted stereotypically: boys were adventurous, curious and active, while the girls were silent onlookers and doting mothers and housewives. According to Nilsen, children under the age of eight are easily influenced by these pictures books, because they are in a phase in which they are “developing their own sexual identity”, leading her to plea for a more accurate representation of both girls and boys in picture books.
Forty years later in 2011, research by Janice McCabe et al. on gender representation in the twentieth century showed that female characters still occur less frequently than male characters in children’s books. Nilsen and McCabe et al. all emphasise the influence that books can have on children. McCabe et al. explain that books teach children how society works, especially when it comes to the role division between men and women. In short, books can influence the readers’ perceptions of gender and history and in turn reinforce or dismantle stereotypes.
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Female characters in modern children’s literature have been shown to be represented in a stereotypical manner, but gender in historical fiction for children has received little scholarly attention. The main characters in the novels under scrutiny in this study all appear to be strong-willed, intelligent women who fight against the status quo of their day, which goes against the modern image of medieval women as obedient, docile, caring wives and mothers, but adheres instead to what are perceived as modern ideals. Scholars note that books on the Middle Ages can and might be used as a vehicle through which modern values, such as equality and self-development, can be explored.
Knights, Rulers, Pilgrims and Writers: Female Characters in Medieval Children’s Books
By Chantal van den Berg
Master’s Thesis, Utrecht University, 2015
Introduction: Fiction is of vital importance in helping to create a greater understanding of history by making it accessible for young readers. This is particularly true of the obscure Middle Ages and the role occupied by women during this period. School history lessons tend to portray the Middle Ages from a male perspective. Women were daughters, wives and mothers, and they remained on the side-line.
However, historical fiction has the power to create a past that focusses more attention on women. It can give these women on the side-lines of history a voice. Historical fiction can teach readers what life could be like for women in this period and help create a greater understanding of the medieval period.
In 1971, Alleen Pace Nilsen wrote about female characters in children’s picture books. She noticed that female characters were a minority and that both girls and boys were often depicted stereotypically: boys were adventurous, curious and active, while the girls were silent onlookers and doting mothers and housewives. According to Nilsen, children under the age of eight are easily influenced by these pictures books, because they are in a phase in which they are “developing their own sexual identity”, leading her to plea for a more accurate representation of both girls and boys in picture books.
Forty years later in 2011, research by Janice McCabe et al. on gender representation in the twentieth century showed that female characters still occur less frequently than male characters in children’s books. Nilsen and McCabe et al. all emphasise the influence that books can have on children. McCabe et al. explain that books teach children how society works, especially when it comes to the role division between men and women. In short, books can influence the readers’ perceptions of gender and history and in turn reinforce or dismantle stereotypes.
Click here to read this thesis from Utrecht University
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