Bullying in girls’ traditional school stories

Authors

• Sara Kokkonen Turun yliopisto

Abstract

Schools stories have formed a popular part of the Finnish girls’ literature. The genre of girls' school stories in Finland was founded by Mary Marck (real name Kersti Bergroth) in the 1910s and she was followed by other authors who continued the tradition. The source material of the article includes six novels from the period from 1910s to 1950s. The Finnish school stories of this period were located mainly in a coeducational school milieu. They describe mutual relations of the pupils in the same class, and friendship between the girls. In this article I examine the school stories in the context of school bullying. I analyse the forms of bullying that can be found in the stories and the ways in which bullying is described to affect both on an individual level and community level. The findings show that the school stories include descriptions of both direct and indirect bullying between the girls, and representations of heavy school bullying in the whole class. However, the analysis shows that the traditional Finnish girls’ school stories have a happy ending and their message is both educational and didactic.