Normalità dilatata. Rappresentazioni della diversità negli albi illustrati finlandesi

Abstract

English article title: Expanded normality. Representations of diversity in Finnish picture books

As the Finnish society is becoming increasingly diverse and school programmes focus on openness to cultural diversity and on critical reading, children’s literature is looking for new ways to portray social plurality and foster inclusion. This article centres on Finnish picture books and aims at outlining some contemporary representations of disability and same-sex families by contextualizing them in the Finnish society, and it also reflects on the different social and cultural positioning of a Finnish picture book recently published in Italy. The analysis draws heavily on the Finnish scholar Jaana Pesonen’s research on the sociopolitical implications of normalizing features, behaviours, and practices to challenge assumptions about normality and difference.