The representation of same-sex parents in children's picturebooks : a corpus-assisted multimodal critical discourse analysis
This thesis presents a descriptive and critical analysis of a representative corpus of picturebooks (52 picturebooks containing 58 stories with a total of 55,319 words) written for children and published in the English language between 1983 and 2012 that feature representations of families with same-sex - i.e. gay or lesbian - parents/caregivers. The majority of these books were published in the USA and UK, but others were also found published in Canada, Australia, or online without details of the country in which they were published. I refer to this unique corpus of rare and controversial picturebooks as the same- sex parent family (SSPF) corpus. The picturebook is a kind of text produced and socially linked specifically to children that combines written language and images in novel ways in order to construct and convey meaning. In their short history of publication SSPF picturebooks have become some of the most requested-to-be-banned books of modern times and have attracted a great deal of controversy. In this thesis I investigate how gay and lesbian sexualities are constructed and represented in SSPF picturebooks, and how those representations and constructions relate to the wider social situation of gay
McGlashan, Mark
The representation of same-sex parents in children's picturebooks : a corpus-assisted multimodal critical discourse analysis. This thesis presents a descriptive and critical analysis of a representative corpus of picturebooks (52 picturebooks containing 58 stories with a total of 55,319 words) written for children and published in the English language between 1983 and 2012 that feature representations of families with same-sex - i.e. gay or lesbian - parents/caregivers. The majority of these books were published in the USA and UK, but others were also found published in Canada, Australia, or online without details of the country in which they were published. I refer to this unique corpus of rare and controversial picturebooks as the same- sex parent family (SSPF) corpus. The picturebook is a kind of text produced and socially linked specifically to children that combines written language and images in novel ways in order to construct and convey meaning. In their short history of publication SSPF picturebooks have become some of the most requested-to-be-banned books of modern times and have attracted a great deal of controversy. In this thesis I investigate how gay and lesbian sexualities are constructed and represented in SSPF picturebooks, and how those representations and constructions relate to the wider social situation of gay
representation same sex parent_child corpus_assisted multimodal critical_discourse_analysis present descriptive critical_analysis representative corpus contain story total word write child publish english_language feature representation family same sex majority book_publish usa others also_find publish canada_australia online without detail country publish refer unique corpus rare controversial same sex parent family corpus kind text_produce socially link specifically child combine write_language image novel_way order construct convey meaning short history publication become book modern_time attract great_deal controversy investigate sexuality construct represented representation construction relate wider_social situation