Zaimek hen w szwedzkich książkach obrazkowych – siedem lat po "Kivi & Monsterhund"

Abstrakt

The aim of the article is to present how the gender-neutral pronoun hen has been used in Swedish picture books since 2012, when the book Kivi & Monsterhund (Kivi & Monster Dog) was published. Hen was first introduced to the Swedish language in the 1960s but did not gain much attention then. However, as the topic of gender became more and more widely discussed in Sweden, the question of hen came up again in the 2000s, receiving indisputably more interest than before. In 2012 the “hen debate” was sparked by Jesper Lundqvist’s book and as a result hen became a part of everyday language, especially in the media and politics. But only six picture books with hen have been published so far. Hence, it cannot be concluded that hen has established its place in this kind of literature.