This talk by Dr. hab. Mateusz Świetlicki, will address selected controversies related to non-traditional gender dynamics and LGBTQ+ themes in children’s and young adult books in Ukraine and Russia. LGBTQ+ youth in many countries are under threat due to the spread of right-wing extremism. Politicians and activists in places as different as Russia, Hungary, and the USA consider gender “as code for pedophilia or a form of indoctrination that teaches young children how to masturbate or become gay” (Butler 2024: 6). Therefore, in their attempts to “protect children,” in the last few years they have been banning books, including beloved classics, and accusing educators of spreading Western gender ideology and, consequently, “putting the final nail in the coffin of the traditional family.”

About Dr. hab. Mateusz Świetlicki 
Dr. hab. Mateusz Świetlicki works at the University of Wrocław’s Institute of English Studies (Poland), where he is the Director of the Center for Young People’s Literature and Culture. His most recent book, Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Children’s Historical Fiction: The Seeds of Memory (Routledge, 2023), examines the transnational entanglements of Canada and Ukraine. 

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Contact: Ekaterina Shatalova
Mail: eshatalova@cas.au.dk

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