Where are the women in the history of literature? : A comparative analysis of how female authors are depicted in two editions of Svenska Timmar – litteraturen

This essay examines how female authors are described in the literary canon of two different editions of the Swedish education material on the history of literature: Svenska Timmar – litteraturen. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the depiction of female authors has changed from the first edition (1991) to the last edition (2012), and how these changes correspond with the curriculums Lgy70 and Lgy11. The study is quantitative as well as qualitative. The quantitative part of the study shows that the percentage of female authors has increased in the 2012 edition. A greater number of female authors are also portrayed with pictures and headings. This increase is partly explained by the new curriculum, Lgy11, which demands that female authors should be included in the history of literature. This was not the case with Lgy70. The qualitative part of the study contains a feminist and gender analysis, examining how a “gender system” produces and reproduces a dichotomy and hierarchy between the sexes, where the male is norm and the female deviates from this norm. This section shows that, despite the increased number of female authors, their portrayal still differs from that of the male authors. For example, the literary work of women is likely to be categorized as “female literature”, which signals that it is not considered as general as the men’s work. This is, in my conclusion, a way to reproduce the gender system of the literary canon