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EA300 Block 5 online tutorial. Words and Pictures Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne (1998) The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1903). Aims of the session. To understand terminology relating to picturebook discourse
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EA300 Block 5 online tutorial Words and Pictures Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne (1998) The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1903)
Aims of the session • To understand terminology relating to picturebook discourse • Using Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins as a case study, to examine non-verbal communication in picturebooks • To work towards TMA05
Terminology (from p.210, Study Guide • A picturebook is one in which the words and images work together. They cannot be disentanged without significantly affecting the meaning. In some cases, much of the narrative is conveyed (sometimes it is entirely conveyed) by the images alone. Examples: Voices in the Park, Rosie’s Walk. • A picture book is one in which the words and images essentially show the same information or the same parts of the story. One could construct pretty much the same story, using either words or pictures. An example might b Rev. W. Awdry’s Thomas the Tank Engine series. • An illustrated book is one where the pictures enhance the book aesthetically but add nothing or little to the actual story. The story holds good without the pictures, and the images have a decorative function, making the book more attractive and enticing to a child. Examples: illustrated poetry books and full length novels.
Rosie’s Walk Rosie’s Walk was published in 1976 and is an early example of a picturebook. It tells the story through words and pictures (36 words in total) of a hen called Rosie taking an innocent walk across the farmyard with a fox in pursuit. There is no indication of the intention of the fox, although we can guess. The fox meets with various mishaps to the reader’s amusement, but is never mentioned in the text.
Innovation in children’s illustration ‘Postmodern Experiments’ by Bette Goldstone in Children’s Literature: Approaches and Territories, pp. 320-330 See also page 235 in the Study Guide for related terminology
Voices in the Park Anthony Browne is recognised as a prominent author/illustrator of the postmodern movement of children’s picturebooks. There are also examples in the Study Guide, you should refer to them for Option 2 relating to animals On the next slide are some examples from Voices in the Park in which Anthony Browne uses postmodern elements
Postmodernism in Voices in the Park • Non-linearity: a feature in illustrative books and novels. With Voices 1-4, Browne goes back to the beginning each time to restart the story, it does not have a traditional beginning, middle and end. • Intertextuality: Browne often uses elements of the surrealist painter Magritte’s work in his books, as well as other artists. In VITP he borrows from popular culture too (Mary Poppins, King Kong etc.)
Postmodernism in Voices in the Park part 2 • Role Reversal: although Mrs Smythe considers herself to be above all the other characters in social status, it is Smudge who garners the most sympathy from the reader. In the text at the beginning we also discover that Mrs Smythe has a different attitude towards her son than she does to her dog. Smudge is also the comforter for her unemployed father.
Metafiction and Scatology Patricia Waugh’s definition of metafiction (paraphrased): Metafiction occurs when a piece of art consciously exposes its own artifice More simply put metafiction occurs when: • The character(s) directly address the reader. A classic example is the line from Jane Eyre “Reader, I married him”. • In picturebooks when the characters climb out of the frame of the illustration
Scatology A literal definition of scatology is a preoccupation with excrement, this can also refer to a Carnivalesque characteristic of picturebooks, when the boundaries of convention and decency are broken.
Intertextuality We have encountered intertextuality in Block 2 with the influences of Pilgrim’s Progress in Little Women, and Robinson Crusoe in Treasure Island. Robinson Crusoe is also intertextualised in Swallows and Amazons. Although these are older texts, intertextuality as a concept was recognised and discussed academically from the late 20th Century.
Beetle Boy, based on Franz Kafka’s short story ‘The Metamorphosis’
TMA05 Option 1 Discuss the evidence for regarding each of Voices in the Park and The Tale of Peter Rabbit as both: a) innovative; b) ‘coercively normalising’
‘Coercively normalising’ comes from p.103, Reader 1, Kimberley Reynolds’ ‘Transformative Energies’ Reynolds discusses the contrasting arguments of Jacqueline Rose and Anne Higonnet. Reynolds argues that Rose identifies children’s literature, and therefore children as remaining in a bubble of innocence and that children shouldn’t be exposed to challenging ideas and themes.
Conversely, Higonnet believes that today’s children are exposed to contemporary ideas, cultures and I would add, media, and are able to process radical ideas. This would include the innovations I have discussed so far in the modern developments in children’s illustration.
Therefore, by ‘coercively normalising’ Reynolds suggests that Rose wishes to limit and confine children (in an oppressive way?) to idealistic images, such as we would have seen in the illustrations of Kate Greenaway and her ilk: gentle, unchallenging and comfortable. Even the artistic techniques such as watercolours and realistic representations of characters in illustrated children’s books would comply with this idea.
TMA05 Option 2 Discuss some of the ways in which animals feature in picturebooks, picture books and illustrated books, and what they suggest about constructions of childhood.
Option 2 advice • This is a good essay for exploring constructions of childhood past and present • How is childhood represented in your examples? Are the child characters repressed or free? Are they encouraged to enjoy childhood or is it complex and traumatic? • Is the author/illustrator trying to convey any meaning in his/her representation of childhood?
Animals in picturebooks: some terminology • Anthropomorphism: when animals are given human characteristics, e.g. Four-legged animals in clothing and standing upright as in The Tale of Peter Rabbit • Zoomorphism: when characters have animal heads and human bodies (many books by Anthony Browne, including Voices in the Park and Piggybook)
Guidance notes • The guidance notes strongly advise against focussing on the definitions and difference between ‘picturebooks’, ‘picture books’ and ‘illustrated books’. IT IS NOT RELEVANT TO THE QUESTION! • You are strongly advised to use examples from The Study Guide. You may provide illustrations in your TMA although the file size for TMAs is only 5MB so you may need to manipulate them. If in doubt, don’t bother, it will take up too much of your time.
