This essay examines how female authors are described in the literary canon of two different

editions of the Swedish education material on the history of literature: Svenska Timmar –

litteraturen. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the depiction of female

authors has changed from the first edition (1991) to the last edition (2012), and how these

changes correspond with the curriculums Lgy70 and Lgy11.

The study is quantitative as well as qualitative. The quantitative part of the study shows

that the percentage of female authors has increased in the 2012 edition. A greater number of

female authors are also portrayed with pictures and headings. This increase is partly explained

by the new curriculum, Lgy11, which demands that female authors should be included in the

history of literature. This was not the case with Lgy70. The qualitative part of the study

contains a feminist and gender analysis, examining how a “gender system” produces and

reproduces a dichotomy and hierarchy between the sexes, where the male is norm and the

female deviates from this norm. This section shows that, despite the increased number of

female authors, their portrayal still differs from that of the male authors. For example, the

literary work of women is likely to be categorized as “female literature”, which signals that it

is not considered as general as the men’s work. This is, in my conclusion, a way to reproduce

the gender system of the literary canon.