Gender representation in selected children stories of K.S. Maniam /

The need to ensure there is a balanced and bias-free portrayal of gender in Malaysian children's literature is pressing. Cues derived from reading these works can affect children's perceptions of the different genders and, consequently, their development as adult men and women. This thesis...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nur Fadhillah bt. Aziz
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Kuala Lumpur: Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:Click here to view 1st 24 pages of the thesis. Members can view fulltext at the specified PCs in the library.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The need to ensure there is a balanced and bias-free portrayal of gender in Malaysian children's literature is pressing. Cues derived from reading these works can affect children's perceptions of the different genders and, consequently, their development as adult men and women. This thesis addresses these concerns by studying the portrayal of the two genders in selected children's stories by K.S. Maniam. This study approaches his works from the multicultural education perspective. Unbiased and balanced portrayal of gender in children's literature is a major area of interest in this approach. This thesis utilizes the “close reading” method, which is a qualitative study focusing on textual and contextual analyses of articles, books, journals and theses that have relevance to the research at hand. It pays close attention to depictions of boys and girls as well as women and men, most importantly, in the form of fathers and mothers in the selected stories. The research shows an encouraging attempt by Maniam to depart from the stereotypical depictions of gender, especially with regard to young girls and women, even as he depicts them mostly as nurturing. It also shows the more complex treatment of male characters in terms of their connection to aggression and technology. As a whole, though it is apparent that Maniam endeavours to divert from the stereotypical portrayal of male and female, most of his stories still uphold the stereotypes that society has on the different spheres and attributes for the different genders.
Physical Description:ix, 106 leaves : ill. ; 30cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-106).