DECONSTRUCTING GENDER IDENTITIES: AN ANALYSIS OF WITCH NARRATIVE ROLES IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Abstract

This research aims, on the one hand, to analyze the role of the literary figure of witches in children’s narratives and, on the other hand, to reveal its specific influence on constructing gender identities and consolidating hegemonic female stereotypes. In order to describe the textual and iconographic patterns on the protagonist profiles of witch narrative figure, and its contribution to the differential construction/socialization of gender identities, a quantitative-descriptive content analysis of 60 textual and iconographic register units, coming from a corpus of five stories for Early Childhood Education, has been applied. According to the results, it is verified the contribution of this historicalliterary figure to the permanence of some of the most traditional feminine social attributions, and to the strengthening of the narrative absence of plural gender identities based on diversity.