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The aim of this study is to develop a pedagogical approach to the teaching of literature in relation to value-based work, specifically regarding questions of sexuality and gender. The starting point for this approach is the pedagogue Gert Biesta’s vision of democracy as something that needs to be exercised within education, rather than a set of values that should simply be transmitted to the students. He also stresses the teacher’s role to actively interrupt the students’ predispositions for the education to be unpredictable, risky, and truly democratic. I combine this approach to teaching with queer theoretical, especially queer temporal, perspectives on sexuality, gender, and literature for ways to disrupt various interpretations of fiction. I also use Rita Felskis theories on literary engagement to interrupt and disrupt previous readings. In the analysis this approach is used to analyze readings of six books – three novels and three picture books: Moominpappa at Sea (1965) by Tove Jansson, Mamman och havet (2012) by Sara Stridsberg and Anna-Clara Tidholm, Darling River (2010) by Sara Stridsberg, Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies (1990) by Pija Lindenbaum, Popular Music from Vittula (2000) by Mikael Niemi, and Kivi & Monsterhund (2012) by Jesper Lundqvist and Bettina Johansson. I study various previous readings of the texts, such as reviews, research, student essays and comments on online forums. This gives an idea of how the text have been read before, and how they are likely to engage the intended readers of this dissertation – interpretations which I disrupt using queer theoretical perspectives. The final chapter problematizes and further develops the thesis’ theoretical framework and discusses its implication for the teaching of literature, as well as for educational philosophy in general, regarding democracy, politics, and ethics.

Around 2007, several self-proclaimed norm-critical publishing companies were established in Sweden. This caused a long debate in the daily press, where some critics compared the ”norm-critical” books to propaganda. The debate indicates a conflict between an aesthetic and a didactic approach to children’s literature. Another lively debate with similar critique took off when Kivi & Monsterhund (Kivi and Monsterdog, 2012) by Jesper Lundqvist and Bettina Johansson was published – a picturebook where the protagonist is referred to by a gender-neutral prounoun. The purpose of this article is to problematise the prevailing view on self-proclaimed norm-critical children’s literature and its didactic relationship to the reader. The reception, the paratexts, and the book itself are analysed using Torben Weinreich’s and Clémentine Beauvais’ different definitions of didactics, Gérard Genette’s view on pararatexts, Maria Nikolajeva’s theories on picturebooks, and Judith Butler’s view on gender as performative. The book, and its didactic relationship to the reader, is found to be much more complex and conflicting than suggested by the reception and the paratexts.