«Sover mamma der hun er nå?» : En studie av hvordan barns sorg framstilles i et utvalg norske, moderne bildebøker

Abstract

In this master`s thesis I analyze the two modern, norwegian picture books Annas Himmel (2013) by Stian Hole and Eg kan ikkje sove no (2008) by Stein Erik Lunde and Øyvind Torseter. In this thesis I study how childrens grief appear in modern picture books. It`s espesially interesting to look at Annas Himmel and Eg kan ikkje sove no, as both of them is about the death of a mother, and where the father and child are left behind. The content and structure in thesebooks are in many ways similar, even though the verbal and visual expression are quite different. This shows how grief is subjective, just as in real life. In this thesis I ask myself: How is the grief process expressed in Annas Himmel and Eg kan ikkje sove no? With the help of picturebook theory and modern grief theory, I put the emphasis on how children cope with grief. Furthermore I look at the relationship between the father and child,and how their role is crucial in the books. To find out how griefis expressed in the picture books, I will have to look at the correlation between words and pictures. Through this study I have concluded that modern grief therory are quite similar to the content in of the picture books. In modern grief theory it`s warned not to use the words as «sleep» as a metaphor for death, because it can cause a wrong conseption of the actual meaning. It has been interesting to use different theroretical angels to study the picture books. For further research, is would have been interesting to apply my findings to a larger selection of picture books.