Som pojkar går och står

Abstract

Just as Boys Do. Reading, Masculinity, and Genre in Ossian Elgström’s Books for Boys
 This article seeks to introduce a significant but largely uncharted motif in relation to the understanding of stories for boys: the experience of reading literature within literature (Gelebte Literatur in der Literatur). While stories for boys often present the boy character as an astute and real-world man-in-embryo, who gravitates away from unnecessary reading, they also include the reading of adventure stories as an important boyhood experience. Addressing books written for boys by the Swedish author and illustrator Ossian Elgström (1883–1950), this article suggests that reading as a motif occupies a key function in connection to the imaging of masculinity. In part, the experience of reading about male adventure heroes – and the inclination to play the roles of these heroes – evokes hegemonic masculinity as a scheme, shaping how boy characters behave and interact. Moreover, the motif also establishes a meta-fictional layer in the text with an implicit appeal to masculine solidarity. Finally, this article explores how the relation between reading and play in Elgström’s books may be regarded as defining for the adventure-fiction genre as a whole.