PERSPEKTIF GENDER ANAK USIA DINI MELALUI REPRODUKSI NARASI BUKU CERITA ANAK BERARKETIP GENDER

R. Della N Kartika
Sari

As young readers, children
subconsciously adopt reader subject position that a particular story offers. In
this case, they reproduce any story (traditional fairy tales and modern
stories) with their own illustration which is highly influenced by the reader
subject position and the sociocultural constructions manifested in the stories.
The research believes that
that children’s narration in pictures subsumes gendered perspective (gendered
reader subject position) which is constructed by the accepted socio-cultural
values. The research examined narrative responses and pictures made by ten
kindergarten students after being given stories with gender-stereotyped
contents. Several theories regarding gender construction such as Stephens’
theory of discourse (1992) and also gender theories in post-structural feminist
perspectives are utilized in the project. Kress and van Leuweun’s (1996) work
on visual grammar is also adopted to investigate the children’s illustration in
reproducing the stories. It is found that the children reproduced gender
archtyped pictures books in the form of their drawings by adopting their
cultural values that connect the story with their own experiences in everyday
life. It is also found that gender ideology places children as gendered subject
through the characters by the children adapting their cultural values and their
own everyday experiences into their drawing. The children reinterpreted
traditional stories and gender patterns. In this way, the children used the
stories creatively, reshaping them to fit their own purposes.

Keywords: gendered reader subject position, visual grammar, gender
roles, gender stereotypes, gender archetyped picture books