Olle + björn = sant

Om barn, björnar och barndomens diskurser

Abstract

Children, bears and childhood discourses

This essay discusses texts that consider the meeting between children and bears. It looks at both meetings between two real individuals and the meetings between the child and the bear within one and the same individual, resulting in the teddy bear, and the clothed and talking bears of children’s literature. These themes are studied in their historical context and analyzed with respect to the literary intertext and different childhood discourses.

The introduction provides a short presentation of the term »discourse« and how it is used as an analytical tool within research into the culture of children.

After presenting Hansen’s »Little Alvhilde« from 1829 and von Braun’s poem »Strong in his Innocence« from 1851 – supposedly based on a real event - Tegnér’s song »Mother’s little Olle« from 1895 is analyzed with respect to its predecessors. The analysis shows how the discourse »the innocent child« takes its form even here, but also how Tegnér develops the »childish« perspective and the tonal and rhythmic qualities of the text, as well as the portrayal of the bear. This portrayal is less frightening in Tegnér’s song, probably because the fear of bears had begun to decrease, and the Romantic Era’s idealized view of childhood had also begun to influence the view of the bear.

That section is followed by a discussion of the meeting between girls and bears in general, and in particular the meeting of Bella and the bear in Nyblom’s story »An Innocent’s Wandering« from 1912.  We see how the same view of childhood, the innocent child, lives on but is also broadened to take in the discourse of the free child. The next section looks at, among other issues, how a story like »Goldilocks and the Three Bears« changes along with a changing view of the real bear as a threat, and the growth of the teddy bear »industry« from around 1900 and onward. The essay concludes with an analysis of how the teddy bear and the theme of Olle and the bear are used and understood during the opening years of the 21st century.