This essay aims to explore the didactic potential in contemporary fiction for addressing the concept of consent within the framework of the upper secondary school education in Sweden. Grounded in the Swedish curriculum for upper secondary school (GY25), which emphasizes the democratic values, and gender equality, as well as students’ ability to critically examine norms and power structures, the essay explores how consent, gender and power relations are depicted in H.D. Carlton’s dark romance novels Haunting Adeline (2021) and Hunting Adeline (2022). Since the legal reform in 2018, which introduced the Swedish consent law, the topic has also become an explicit and essential area in the Swedish curriculum, further underscoring the importance of examining how literature can support the teaching of consent.

The analysis focuses on the portrayal of consent, as well as which characters are subjected to the violations of consent and how these depictions are largely connected and intertwined with both gendered and economic power structures. Through Malin Alkestrand’s concept of didactic potential, Ulrika Dahl’s concept of sex and gender, as well as Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge’s concept of intersectionality, the study explores how these novels explore, reproduce, and challenge the normative ideas about sexuality, power, and agency. This is done through the application of Anders Palm’s model of text interpretation, and Anna Nordlund’s concept of close reading.

The findings indicate that consent is largely absent and/or problematized in the novels. It is frequently overridden by male dominance, economic power, and structural violence – specifically within contexts of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Furthermore, the narratives complicate traditional gender roles by portraying shifts in power, women’s autonomy, and non-normative expressions of masculinity. The essay argues that, despite their ethically challenging content, the novels offer significant didactic potential when approached and looked at through at critical lens. When used within a carefully structured pedagogical framework, they may serve as a starting point for classroom discussions on consent, gender equality, power relations, combined with the critical examination of sexuality representations in fiction and in media.