ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the impact of fiction on readers’ beliefs about gender and examines how this field can be further developed. First, it clarifies why the presentation of gender in literature is an important issue. Second, it presents the main results of the empirical studies on the power of fiction, differentiating between the effect of storybooks on children and that of novels on adults. While the former has brought forth a coherent body of research, the latter has produced results that are suggestive but somewhat contradictory. The last section discusses possible reasons for these contradictions and suggests future directions of research.
