REVOLUTION OR DIVERSITY? AESTHETIC AND POLITICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF CLASS IN THREE SWEDISH RADICAL PICTUREBOOKS FROM THE 2000S AND 2010S

This article explores manifestations of class from a combined aesthetical and political point of view, focusing on a selection of Swedish children’s picture books from 2009 to 2018, in which class differences are made prominent. In this sense, they can be regarded as radical. This study examines how political aspects are intertwined with literary, visual, and multimodal means. The main purpose is to examine how the political and aesthetical merge in the manifestations of class. The publishing of radical picture books during the 2000s and 2010s coincided with a rise of norm-criti-cal discourse, including a strong emphasis on diversity rather than on social transformation. The books, I argue, do not depict radical change on a collective level, but uses various aesthetic means in their manifestations of class and inequality. Theoretically, the analysis mainly draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital (1984), and Beverley Skeggs’s (1997) reasoning on class by adding the concept of respectability, as well as picturebook theory, and scholarly writing on radical picturebooks.

INTRODUCTION Some children's picturebooks that approach issues of class and class differences offer primarily a broader scope of representation, while others also encompass or promote social transformation.
Manifestations of class come in various literary and visual modes of telling, with different aesthetical and political functions.
During the 2000s and 2010s, diversity regarding social settings, characters, experiences, and narrative perspectives increased. The study aims to contribute to current research by scrutinizing how various realistic and non-realistic narrative modes contribute to the manifestation of class and class differences, and their political functions.

CHILDREN'S PICTUREBOOKS ON CLASS. SURVEY OF THE FIELD
Before we get into the contemporary manifestations of class, I will provide a brief background of the field of children's literature from the politically radical period from around 1969 until now.  16 In several articles, literary scholar Mia Österlund penetrates the construction of gender in Lindenbaum's picturebooks. One of her articles explores the transformation of girlhood, where the construction of gender is described as "gurlesque," pointing at a specific feminine-grotesque doing of girlhood. 17 A few other studies deal with Siv's First Sleepover. Österlund also examines gender aspects of Lindenbaum's Bridget series (Orig.: Gittan). 18 Österlund uses the term 'gurlesque,' anchored in queer theory, to analyse the conflation of conventional girlish attributes, for instance the colour pink, with elements of danger or aggression.

THEORETICAL STARTING POINTS
Kimberly Reynholds claims that there is a certain radical potential in children's literature per se: "[C]hildren's literature contributes to the social and aesthetic transformation of culture by, for instance, encouraging readers to approach ideas, issues, and objects from new perspectives and so prepare the way for change." 22 It is notable that Reynolds refers to both social and aesthetic transformation, not as synonymous with, but as a different aspect of the supposed transformative potential that may be more or less pronounced.
Transformation is also a key concept in Clémentine Beauvais's reasoning on, what she calls, politically committed children's literature, which is associated with social transformations on various levels. 23 According to Julia Mickenberg and Philip Nel, radical children's books push readers to identify with the poor or to recognize their own privilege. Further, they claim that the supposed radicality may concern matters of equality but also flawed assumptions of children and childhood. 24 In my analysis of picturebook manifestations of class, I will draw on these conceptualizations of radical literature, primarily Economical capital is about material assets, such as income or savings. Cultural capital refers both to relevant education and knowledge about social and cultural codes needed in a specific environment. It is important to stress that the value of certain capital may vary in different contexts. Further, the access to capital relates to sex/gender, class, nation, cultural background, age and function. 26 In addition, I will utilize Beverly Skeggs's feministic class theory, focusing the concept of respectability. For the less privileged, respectability might be something to urgently pursue.
Respectability is associated with moral authority, social value, and legitimacy: "a property of middle-class individuals defined against the masses." 27 In her anthropological study, Skeggs show how being a working-class woman may imply disassociation rather than association; an attempt not to be recognized as part of the working class in order to achieve respectability. 28

MAKING ENDS MEET
The Week Before Child Benefit Payment is Elin Johansson's literary debut, followed by Staying at Home All Summer (Hemma hela sommaren, 2018). 29 Both are illustrated by Ellen Ekman, author and illustrator of several comics and comic strips. The first book depicts a week and the other a summer in the life of a child and mother by presenting significant moments where their economic situation becomes pronounced. This analysis concentrates on Johansson's debut, but will relate to the second title when relevant.
The protagonist/narrator appears to be around five to seven years old, presented visually with rounded shapes and with medium long brown hair. As in many comics, the characters are depicted with four fingers on each hand, though it in this case this feature deviates from the social realistic approach. The protagonist/narrator is not clearly gendered, verbally or visually. The book's informative title refers to a benefit that is similar for all parents in Sweden; the amount of money depends on the number of children but not the size of income. It is not stated how the mother gets her income, whether she is unemployed or employed, if she is a student or on sick leave, or perhaps dependent on social benefits from the state. This omission of information regarding the mother is congenial with the child's perspective of the story. 32 The iconotext is most often complementary: pictures fill verbal gaps, and vice versa. 33 The writing is quite straightforward, while the visual interplay adds social context and symbols, and often expands the everyday realism in the sparse text. The pictures also sometimes put to the fore a playfulness, as a means of handling the economic situation. There are also more ambivalent dimensions of play, as the earmuffs on the picture below. (Fig. 1) In both titles by Johansson and Ekman, other children talk about their plans to do things like going to the cinema or on some kind of expensive holiday trip. The narrator sometimes claims to have similar plans. In Staying Home All Summer, the teacher asks the children on their last day at school about their plans for summer. Sixten says that he will go to Legoland, Sara says that she will go to Thailand. Then the narrator claims that he/she will go on a safari. Eventually the narrator's mother arranges a local "safari" at a lake nearby. Then Sara turns up, and it is obvious that the fancy plans did not become realized. These kind of responses to social expectations that one is unable to live up to can be regarded as a way of fitting in or, to apply Skeggs's concepts, as a call for respectability, by claiming to have what is expected according to middle-class norms. The pursuit for respectability becomes more urgent for those who are subordinated and regarded as other, and are therefore in need of proving themselves to be respectable. 34 The child narrator suffering from socioeconomic exposure is subordinated both due to young age and to lack of economic means. However, he/she is aware of the economic conditions. The adult-child relation within the family is, in this respect, relatively equal. 35 The pursuit for respectability is put to the fore verbally and visually. On the spread depicting the evening before the child narrator is due to go on an excursion, the mother puts duct tape on the child's worn-out boots. On the left page, the child is holding the This silence, made explicit, indicates a deep sense of shame but also an awareness of the family's lack of money. Perhaps she is ashamed, as Nordenstam suggests, though the text does not say. 38 The clash between the educator's supposedly caring utterance and the resulting silence make differences in class visible. The reaction can also be perceived as a quiet response to the experience of prescribed disrespectability. The narrator knows that their mum is incapable of doing what she is told, not because of carelessness but because of her lack of money. This is only one example of how this book focuses the lack of economic means, not a social exposure including lack of various sorts of capital.
The verbal text on this page also tells us that Sixten says that he is going to the cinema, while the narrator states that he/she also might do that. The visual presentation shows the narrator looking a bit anxious at one of the children, probably Sixten, who, on the contrary, looks excited. Two other children seem to engage in a conversation, while one of them is feeding sausage to some ants. The (preschool) teacher is pictured as a young woman

FRIENDSHIP IN LATE CAPITALISM
A more thorough social-realistic approach is to be found in Uje A young protagonist and first-person narrator of the book is depicted with mostly feminine attributes and, hence, will be referred to as a girl even though the gender is not stated. She lives with her mother in a socially exposed suburbia with highrise estates visible from the window. Their flat is sparsely though colourfully furnished, with few toys or decorations. The book depicts the child and her mother travelling by bus, subway, and another bus, and they eventually end up in a well-off area on the opposite side of the city; later, it shows them going back again.
On their way to the Henrikssons, the family passes a toy store.
In the display window, there is a Transformer toy that the narrator claims to want more than anything in the whole world. The text goes: "But I know that it costs a lot of money. So, I do not even badger." 41 Just like the competent child in The Week Before Child Benefit Payment, this narrator is well aware of her economic situation and she co-operates with her mother. As Nordenstam states in her analysis, children tend to be loyal to their parents no matter what. 42 Nevertheless, the narrator seems to lack the knowledge which the reader gathers via the visual presentation: that the children's friendship is steeped in economic relations as the mother is hired to clean Harald's house. The mother and the child eventually reach Henrikssons' house, a huge villa. From now on, the pictures inform the reader that the mother has come to clean the house, while her child plays with the son, Harald, who lives there with his mother. The text indicates that this happens on a regular basis. It is notable that the mother of the protagonist uses paper plates for her packed sandwiches not to soil the kitchen table of her employer. This is not mentioned in the text but exemplifies how the visual presentation adds a class perspective to the verbal presentation that focuses on the child perspective and the friendship motive, even though the text itself is not as innocent or ideologically neutral as it might first seem.  an idea that the book as a whole undermines. (Fig. 2) On spread number eight, a picture shows the two friends sitting on the fringe of a sofa in front of a huge TV. 43 In the background, the narrator's mother can be seen cleaning a framed poster that shows the punk band Sex Pistols. She wipes precisely on the word "class," literally and symbolically erasing the word from the supposed progressive identity of the adults paying to have their house cleaned.
Whether the work is undeclared is not explicitly stated but implicitly suggested. This brings to the fore the general conflict characterizing this book, since the mother's domestic work is not commented on at all, neither on this spread nor in the book in general. 44 Further, the distinction between verbal and the visual text, that is presupposed by the concept of iconotext, is blurred since significant letters within the picture, rather than part of the typically separate text, are being wiped out. In this respect, aesthetic and political radicalness interplay.
The verbal text describes the villa from the child narrator's perspective. It is claimed to be "perfect because there are 'several million rooms to hide in'." 45 On the spread referred to above, the two children, living in different geographical and socio-economic margins of the town, are once again separated though they are in the same house. This is stressed visually.
Play serves important functions in the manifestation of class and power relations. As Harald wants to play on his computer, the narrator prefers to play with his dog, claiming not to be very good at computer games. Though not made explicit, the depiction indicates that this is done in order not to reveal her lack of experience of such expensive activities. The basis of her lack in gaming skills is not declared but her warding off to avoid potential shaming is significant and is reminiscent of the strategies presented in Johansson's books.
Regarding the children's play, the carnivalesque subversion of power relations as they play master and servant is notable. The picture shows Harald kissing the narrator's feet, while the text adds that she makes him fetch things for her. 46  Back home, the worn-out mother is pictured lying on the sofa with a remote control in her hand. The spread resembles the one in The Week Before Child Benefit Payment, where the mother lies on a sofa, bored and tired of her lack of money. In a much sparser room, the narrator of At Harald Henriksson's Home plays Lego on the floor. The mother looks exhausted. The verbal text says that the child plans to return the transformer she has stolen from her friend, and telling her mum of the theft. Her facial expression indicates that she is ashamed, but her mum declares that she is not angry. Nonetheless, she does not let her child keep the toy. In other words, the economic transformation is only temporary, depicted as illegitimate, yet understandable. This could be regarded as an indication that the theft is viewed as somewhat legitimate. 49 Nevertheless, this small transformation of means is temporary.
As the book ends, the child's wish that Harald one day will come and visit her indicates, at least for an adult reader, of her childish lack of comprehension of the economic basis of their friendship.
There is no transformation of power, no child becoming mighty as in Beauvais's reasoning. 50 The visual presentation of the mother's restricted body language and lowered gaze expresses incarnated subordination.
The final spread, however, emphasizes the close mother-child relationship, showing them looking at each other in the light of the bed lamp. The mother's face is turned towards her child, whose wide-open eyes are in focus. The Transformer toy is still in their apartment but there are no signs of any transformation whatsoever.

A BOURGEOIS NIGHTMARE
The well-established Swedish picturebook creator Pija Lindenbaum has challenged various norms not by rejecting them, but rather, by playing with them. 51 This goes for gender norms, but also, in some of her work, for class norms. In Siv Sleeps Astray, a playful title in comparison with the two more direct ones discussed above, the young narrator is about to spend the night at Cerisia's place. Siv has long blond hair and a T-shirt similar to that of her new red-haired friend. In an interview, Lindenbaum stated the T-shirt to be a cheaper version of that of her friend's. 52 Else, I would argue that one could interpret Siv's version as basic,  within magic(al) realism "correspond closely to the conditions of childhood and adolescence, which are intrinsically about change, metamorphosis, and growth of body and mind." 61 Further, Reynolds claims that magic(al) realism can also be a way of working towards social change. In this case, it ends with a change of the protagonist's views and feelings, by strengthening her sense of belonging in a familiar environment-at home with her dad.
Eventually, after having bumped into the badgers, Siv finds her friend on the toilet (which is not mentioned in the text). Hence, her sudden disappearance acquires a reasonable explanation, even though the relation between reality and dream stays blurred, and the badgers appear in the same picture. They are also mentioned in the verbal text: "They probably do not want to be bossed," Siv says, and Cerisia agrees. 62