Romantic love in children´s literature a gender question.

Abstract

Considering that love and marriage have being jeopardized in our society, as new family patterns or even other possibilities on how to experience love emerge, my research problem is focused on discussing how children’s literature has been presenting themes such as: how does romantic love and the materialization of this feeling, through relationships that are established based upon it, have been represented in children’s literature books? In which ways are gender relationships depicted in these books? How is marriage seen in connection with love relationships? Results show that in most of children’s literary pieces love feelings still appears associated with the idea of marriage; woman is still responsible for raising up children; some stories present romantic love linked with pain and the difficulty of conquest. The characteristics of love at first sight are also persistent, as well as the empowerment of this feeling in order to transform the other person.