Drei mal drei ist queer. Queere Rebell_innen in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur

Abstract

Queer protagonists in literature for children and young adults are not per se headstrong and rebellious. Often their sheer existence seems to be a provocation for the dominant social order. Their “otherness” is determined by rigid gender norms and normative desires. Many additional norms come with the attribution of one specific gender – “boy” or “girl”, seemingly natural regularities, life narratives that tell about what is possible and what is not: lesbian, gay, bi, trans or inter – queer identities for a long time represented the “other” of normality. Taking the example of three texts that deal with gender norms and queer lives and desires (Lobe/Weigel: Das kleine Ich-bin-ich; Lindgren: Pippi Langstrumpf; Axster: Atalanta Läufer_in), I analyze how these protagonists are represented, what their agency is and if they are rebellious – and if so in what way? I am also interested in narrative strategies that transgress the binary order and question heteronormative constraints.