”En människa är det”: Flickskap i Jessica Schiefauers Pojkarna

Abstract

This article analyses Jessica Schiefauer’s prize-winning young adult novel Pojkarna (The Boys), where a magical metamorphosis from girl to boy takes place. The novel raises questions about girlhood and gender: what is it like not being able to, or not want to, identify with a specific gender? The paper analyses how girlhood is constructed in Pojkarna, and discusses the novel as fantastic realism and thus as an eclectic form of fantasy literature. The argument of the article is that the novel, through its depiction of gender, contributes to a renewal of the fantastic genre. This article examines how girlhood is constructed through metamorphoses, performativity, spatiality and mirroring. The narrative does not demand a reversion to realism, utilizing the subversiveness of the fantastic genre to its fullest. Thus the potential of the magical metamorphosis, to another gender, remains at the end of the novel. Keywords: young adult literature, fantasy, fantastic literature, girlhood, gender, sexuality, metamorphosis, performativity, mirroring, spatiality, Jessica Schiefauer

Keywords

• young adult literature
• fantasy
• fantastic literature
• girlhood
• gender
• sexuality